In testimony that lasted nearly three hours on Friday, a teenage girl described how she said she and her siblings were treated for years at the hands of their adoptive parents. Jeanne Kay Hughes Whitefeather and Donald Ray Lantz, are both accused in a 20-count indictment also alleging charges of child abuse and other civil rights violations that stem from the October 2023 discovery of two teenagers locked in a shed in Sissonville.
The teen testified about the shed, saying that at first, they did not have a bed in the shed, so they slept in a plastic chair with a sleeping bag. Her brother slept with a sheet. Eventually, Lantz made a bedframe with plywood and a mattress for her but not her brother, who slept with cardboard.Whitefeather talked to the siblings through motion-activated surveillance cameras, according to the testimony, which the couple constantly monitored. She said Whitefeather laughed at them through the cameras and called them “stupid.” Lesley Rubin with Eyewitness News has been following the trial and said the teen described being made to stand all day to “wear them out.”The trial will continue on Tuesday.