MUSKEGON, Mich. — The brother of a 15-year-old found dead inside a Norton Shores home last week was charged with first-degree child abuse in his brother’s death.
20-year-old Paul Ferguson was officially charged on Thursday, less than one week after Timothy Ferguson, 15, was found in an ice bath, malnourished and severely abused.
Police found Timothy on July 6th and almost immediately charged his mother, 43-year-old Shanda Vander Ark with homicide and first-degree child abuse. Together, Vander Ark and Paul Ferguson are accused of a sinister pattern of abuse that may have lasted for years.
“If you do this job long enough, you’re going to see a lot of things that are very disturbing; are disgusting,” said Muskegon County Prosecutor D.J. Hilson. “There are a handful, maybe one or two cases that for me, reach to the level of things that I wish would never have happened and certainly are the most disturbing, and this is one of them.”
Hilson said the conditions under which investigators found the teen, who had special needs, were appalling.
“As punishment – for I’m not sure what behavior – but as punishment, our 15-year-old was subject to ice baths, was subject to not being fed food other than bread or bread soaked in hot sauce,” he said. “It’s clear that this wasn’t the first time our victim, this 15-year-old, had suffered at the hands of neglect and abuse.”
In fact, Hilson discovered Vander Ark has a history with child protective services out of Oklahoma, where the Fergusons lived briefly. But he also said Vander Ark was never ordered to give up parental rights, or even contact with her three children.
“Instead of having her parental rights terminated, she voluntarily left the house,” said Hilson, “and from what we can tell, that where the case kind of ended.”
Oklahoma state officials have pledged their full cooperation, Hilson added. As he prepares his case, he’s also preparing for the difficulty that will inevitably come with prosecuting such an horrific incident.
“I have a 15-year-old and I can’t even think of a time where I would ever even want to see my child suffer like that,” he said. “As a parent I guess that’s probably where things start to get really real, really fast.”
If you or someone you know is suffering from abuse of neglect, call the National Domestic Abuse Hotline at (800)-799-7233 or Michigan Child Protective Services at (855)-444-3911.
