The birth mother is a sociopath or she'd be dead by now...by her own hand.

I know I couldn't live with myself. And, I'd have to make my own death as long and tortuous as possible.

Child protective agencies have limited power in situations where there is neglect, but not obvious physical abuse. In 2005, they could see that the child was malnourished and greatly neglected but before that the picture probably was much less clear. Truth is, kids do better with their own parents, even when those parents are not up to societal standards, than they do in foster care. Foster care is like a sentence; kids are abused and shuttled around from foster parent to foster parent without the reliable affection and nurturing that children need.

IMO, this is due to the tragic underfunding of our much-needed child welfare system. Foster parents too often do it for the money, not for love of children. Caseworkers are overloaded and cannot come close to investigating their cases properly. Police have few options when they find a child in a neglected situation. The system's broke.

Aw, don't be harsh. She did her best!

There's a comment on the article page which describes the original mother as a "manipulative sociopath."
I can't say I disagree.

The thoughts of what this girl endured didn't make me sad nearly as much as it made me ANGRY. As I sit here surrounded by pictures of my kids and grandkids, knowing I would do absolutly anything for them, I can not comprehend that kind of neglect from a mother. There's a special place in Hell for people like this, and the quicker she's there, the happier I'll be.

I have to go throw up now...

The neglect is sickening. You know, you hear about where one child is picked out (so to speak) to be abused or forgotten.

But the rest of the house! The woman and her 2 grown sons living in a house smeared with feces, of all kinds. The stench so bad that the first cop ran out throwing up!

The whole story and scene, well, I just can't wrapped my brain around the whole thing.

Many of the kids I encounter in my work at the juvy come from situations that are too disgusting for most to imagine. They come to the youth home, get clean clothes, meals, friends, structured environment, adult interactions, consistency, etc. Many are happier locked up than they were in their homes with drugged out, boozed up, uncaring, selfish, slutty parents, parent, grandparents, aunt, uncle, "friends of the family," step family, etc. I've never had a kid nearly as far gone as this girl, but I've had more than a few who needed to be taught basic hygiene. Brushing their teeth, washing their hair, even the need to wipe their butts after using the toilet. It is a sad world we live in. If you are not out there trying to make it a better place (like Dani's parents) then get started. Too many people are too self absorbed to reach out and help the hurting.
*Gets off high horse*

Amen.

Ditto.

Seems to be escalating and becoming more prevelant. It's a "me, me, me" society and I get quite tired of it.

While reading this I teared up like 4 different times, I cant take that type of s**t. Cases like this are why I had to get out of child psychology. I wish there was a job where all I did was review and slowly torture the people who are sick enough to do things like this to others. I would take great pride and joy in my work, they wouldn't even have to pay me.

Great article Chez

I understand you sentiment, but I have to say there are more constructive things we can do. The biological "mom" in this story had an IQ of 71. That is rather low functioning. These things are usually cyclical. The neglected become the neglectors. Why... because it is the only thing they know. Are they accountable for their actions? Of course. But what the world needs is love, patience, kindness, gentleness, etc. Oops, now I'm starting to quote scripture, but it is true.

It is truly horrifying what happened to this child. What wonderful people who took her in, and the brother who claimed her as his sister!

There's no telling what was going on with her when in that house. It's true the mother just simply may not have paid any attention to her and Dani didn't learn any skills.

However, if something was wrong with Dani that would have needed special attention, the fact that the mother has an I.Q. of 77, she herself may not have had the skills to know what to do. I'm not excusing it, just saying she may have had limited reasoning capabilities. Although, she did say she was a student at the University of Tampa when she met her first husband. (if that's true) She still just doesn't seem to "get it" that something was horribly wrong with Dani's situation there.

The story was quite touching, and I truly wish the best for Dani and her family and that she continues to improve.

I just don't know what to say. I am so grateful that a warm caring family found her. And that they are able to give her the care she now needs. I could go on, but it would be a repeat of what has already been said.

When I worked at a grocery store we had a mother daughter duo who came in every Wednesday. We called the two Wednesday because of that and dreaded their visit every week. The reason why was because the daughter was SEVERLY mentally handicapped. She would make a squaking noise and walk around aimlessly and it never failed that she would have an accident on either the meat or dairy aisle. Her mother wouldn't even notice and someone would have to go clean it up. They absolutely reeked of urine and feces, but it seemed that no one wanted to do anything, just make mean comments about "Wednesday" and bet on which aisle would get it this week. It took me a while to finally work up the courage to call Adult Protective Services on them, but I told myself that it was for the best. I forgot to mention that the mother was also mentally handicapped, not severly, more like the woman in this story. They were both taken by APS to a nursing home where the mother died shortly afterward. I still wonder how "Wednesday" is doing without her mom. You could tell that the girl really loved her mother, she would lay her head on her mom's shoulder when they were in the checkout aisle and it was just heartbreaking to think that the mom couldn't give her the care she deserved, but she wasn't mentally capable. The thing that really got to me though was after they had been taken away, I drove by their house one day and realized that the father was living there. He was outside cleaning off some furniture with a waterhose. I recognized him because he worked with my husband at the state Department of Transportation. Now the mother had the excuse of being mentally handicapped, but the father wasn't handicapped at all, yet he was letting his wife and daughter live like that. That is what really made me want to be sick.

According to:
Wechsler, David (1997).IQ Classifications in Educational Use. American Journal of Psychology. Volume 3.
The average IQ in America is 98. To be classified Mentally Retarded your I.Q. score must fall below 69 points.

Yea I understand cyclical progression and whatnot, but this woman’s I.Q. was 71. She was by no means mentally retarded. Many of the characteristics of MID (Mild Intellectual Disability, not mild retardation) correspond to those of Learning Disabilities. The intellectual development will be slow; however, they can function in society and can excel in academics with proper guidance.
I work with people who are mildly mentally retarded back home and even people with mild MR (mentally retarded) or who are MR have sense enough to work in society and know right from wrong.

“Everyone knew a woman lived in the house with her boyfriend and two adult sons.”
She was able to rent a house, buy food and apparently raise boys who could function in society. Why was it that she kept her daughter in a dark closet, malnourished and dying? I understand what you are saying, don’t jump to conclusions, you never know if someone is just doing what they know, but by reading this story its apparent that this is not the case. Because whatever the reason for her actions she was SEVERLY neglectful and needs to be punished. I hope she rots in prison.

Maybe, just maybe, he was the landlord or something?

EDIT: oops, too fast for me. This was in answer to blansettbabe

Unless she is able to grow developmentally, the sad news is that she will have to be cared for for the rest of her life. As loving as her new parents are, they are unlikely to be able to accomplish this.

As I said, she needs to be held accountable. My only thought is I would rather live in a world where people want to reach out to people like Dani and her bio-mom and not take great pleasure in the slow torture of them. I know you would not torture Dani, but it is quite likely that the mom was also neglected. What she did was horribly wrong, torturing her would also be horribly wrong. Mom and Dani both need help.

She may never fully develop, but I haven't a doubt in my mind that this couple will not be able to care for her. The adoptive father said, when you have children of your own, you don't know what you will get. And he believed the same to be true as he and his wife adopted Dani. I don't think they went into this blindly. They know she will be in their care for the rest of her life and theirs.

With luck, and it's a good wish. It's entirely possible that they won't be able to though, regardless of intentions and planning. I just hope that she, and every other individual in any way like her, is able to have stable care from persons who love them, whether or not they're getting paid.