The child, only identified as LL, had stopped growing and even got shorter than he was a year before he died on December 21, 2022, while in the care of Brandy Cooney and Becky Hamber.
He was found soaking wet, unresponsive and emaciated, lying on the basement floor of the couple's home before being rushed to the hospital where he later passed away.
LL and his brother, identified as JL, started living with the couple in their Ontario home in 2017 after being moved from a foster home in Ottawa.
State social workers and pediatricians labeled the boy as "in normal health" despite his dramatic weight loss over the course of the year, listing him as fine just 2 months before he took his last breath. Stefanie Peachey, a social worker assigned to watch over the boys, told the court she recorded 'yellow flags' after saying she saw the surviving brother zip-tied into his pajamas, CBC stated.
Peachey, who worked with the brother and the couple for about a year, said her sessions mainly focused on the boy's identity's and "who they wanted to be" rather than their well being with their caretakers. She worried about 'the narrative around who [the boys] were...focused around negative experiences,' even if 'they were good or bad,' the court heard.
The social worker did not raise significant issue when she discovered the boys were frequently zip tied or restrained - something the women said was to ensure they didn't "urinate when they became upset".
When the oldest boy began to suffer from significant weight loss, the women blamed it on "an eating disorder". The social worker accepted their story.
Lesbians torture brothers for 8 years, kills one. The child, only identified as LL, had stopped growing and even got shorter than he was a year before he died o
Shockingly, a letter from psychological and medical personnel working with the boys in 2019 was revealed - sent to the state's director of foster care -which was read aloud in court. It stated that the couple's parenting style and 'safety containment was more abusive than therapeutic,' as they forced the boys to sleep in tents, covered their rooms in tarps and zip-tied them to their clothing.
The women also had 'violent, explosive personalities that led to uncontrolled emotions' the letter stated.
Both women plead guilty to first degree murder as well as assault, neglect, and forced confinement.