White West Virginia couple held Black children as slaves in a decrepit barn
A white West Virginia couple has been arrested for adopting Black children to use them as slaves and making them live in a decrepit barn behind their property.
Donald Ray Lantz, 63, and Jeanne Kay Whitefeather, 62, are accused of locking the five adopted Black children in a “deplorable” shed behind their home in Kanawha County, West Virginia, about 15 miles south of the capital city of Charleston, according to the New York Post.
The suspects pled not guilty Tuesday to multiple felonies, including human trafficking of a minor child, use of a minor child in forced labor, and child neglect, creating a substantial risk of serious bodily injury or death.
“[The prosecution] alleges human trafficking, human rights violations, the use of forced labor,” said Kanawha County Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers. “Human rights violations specific to the fact that these children were targeted because of their race and they were used basically as slaves from what the indictment alleges,” reports the WV Metro News.
The couple was originally arrested in October 2023 when authorities performed a wellness check after a neighbor said the couple kept the five kids — ages 6, 9, 11, 14 and 16 — in a shed on their property in Sissonville, West Virginia.
Months after the couple posted bond, they were arrested again when police found the two eldest children locked in the shed with dirty and tattered clothes on. Police stated that both teens reeked of body odor, were forced to sleep on the floor, had only a port-a-potty to use, and no running water. The teen boy had scratches and sores on his feet because he had no shoes, WV Metro News reports.
When the children were interviewed by authorities, they reportedly spoke of systemic abuse by the parents at the Sissonville property as well as their home in Tonasket, Washington. The New York Post reports that prosecutors have evidence that because they were under investigation in Washington state, the couple sold their home and fled to West Virginia.
Kanawha County prosecutor Christopher Krivonyak successfully petitioned the judge in the case to raise the couple’s bond. He argued they were able to post bond the first time by using the fruits of their crime — alleged slavery and human trafficking — to get out of temporary confinement.
