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Boys found severely malnourished
Collingswood couple held on endangerment, assault charges
A local couple starved their four adopted sons for years, feeding them only oatmeal and pancake batter – a nightmarish regimen that continued despite monthly visits by a state social worker, authorities said Sunday.
Raymond and Vanessa Jackson, who are charged with aggravated assault and endangering, were preparing to adopt another child when the emaciated youths, ages 9 to 19, were discovered, officials added.
A state social worker who regularly visited the Jacksons reported no problems at a house where neighbors said home-schooled youngsters washed laundry outdoors in buckets and cut the grass with hand clippers.
That social worker has resigned, and eight to 10 managers at the state’s Division of Youth and Family Services have been suspended with pay pending an investigation, a state official said.
“What happened to these children is simply unspeakable,” said Colleen Maguire of the state Department of Human Services.
Raymond Jackson, 50, and his wife, Vanessa, 48, were being held Saturday in Camden County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail each.
Six of their seven children were placed in new foster homes. The oldest child, a 19-year-old who weighed 45 pounds when found by authorities, is being treated at an area hospital for medical complications.
Neighbors in the 300 block of the White Horse Pike reacted with shock and anger.
“All this time I thought the little kids had a medical condition,” said Peter DiMattia, 39, who lives next to the Jacksons. “I could choke this guy knowing this, that he did this.”
Authorities said a neighbor alerted them to the suspected abuse on Oct. 10, calling police to report a child rummaging through their trash about 2 a.m.
Officers arrived to find Bruce Jackson, 19, who was so slight that they initially thought he was 10. The young man is only 4 feet tall, his growth apparently stunted by malnutrition, officials said.
Police later went to the Jackson house, a nondescript three-story building on one of the borough’s busiest streets, and found three other boys described as “extremely small and underweight.”
They were identified only as M.J., 9; T.J., 10; and K.J., 14. The 10-year-old and the 14-year-old are biological brothers, officials said.
The four boys had a combined weight of 136 pounds when they were found, said Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi. Some of the boys have physical or mental disabilities that predate their adoption by the Jacksons, he said.
Sarubbi said the Jacksons contend the boys were underweight due to eating disorders. But the prosecutor said doctors dismissed that claim.
All of the boys were hospitalized after being found by authorities. The three youngest, who have all added several pounds, were released to foster homes on Friday.
Sarubbi said the youngsters had received no medical attention and were malnourished for a five-year period. He called it the worst case of child abuse and neglect that his office has encountered.
“They really, truly didn’t understand how horrible their life was,” said Sarubbi, who described the boys as friendly and well-mannered. “They didn’t know you could go to Friendly’s and get an ice cream.”
Three girls living in the Jackson house, ages 5, 10 and 12, were not malnourished, he said.
Authorities said the Jacksons received $28,000 a year from the state to help care for some of the children. And neighbors said the couple enjoyed relative luxuries – like silk suits for Raymond Jackson, who was identified as a financial planner – and time-share vacation homes in Williamsburg, Va., and the Poconos.
But officials and neighbors described primitive conditions at the Jackson home, which lacked electricity from June 18 to Oct. 6 and had no gas service from Sept. 8 to Oct. 6 due to unpaid bills. The Jacksons owe $8,000 in back rent on their home and have defaulted on both time-share properties, officials said.
An investigation of the home revealed bite marks on window sills. Pieces of wall and insulation were missing, Sarubbi said.
One boy had a wadded mass in his stomach and investigators suspect the youths gnawed on parts of the house out of hunger.
The boys were so skinny their ribs and shoulder blades protruded beneath skin that was chalky, almost gray, neighbors said. All of the boys were unnaturally short.
In the quiet neighborhood near the imposing Scottish Rite Consistory, residents said they wondered about the frail children they sometimes saw doing chores in their front yard.
“I thought maybe they were just ill,” said Kristine Kordacki, 57, whose apartment overlooks the Jacksons’ home. “I just feel horrible that maybe I should have called somebody.”
A state official said some blame must fall on DYFS, an agency already reeling from reports of neglect and mismanagement. The agency two days ago completed a court-ordered safety review of the 14,000 children under its care.
A DYFS employee visited the Jackson home each month for the past two years as the couple sought to adopt a 10-year-old girl already in their care, said Maguire of Human Services. She said other cases handled by the social worker are being reviewed.
“There is serious incompetence, indifference or negligence associated with this case,” she said, weeping. “There are no words.”
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