Vivian Wahlstrom and Jaymeson Wahlstrom, Grand Rapids, Minnesota couple charged in worse case of child abuse and torture ever seen by prosecutors as couple were caught on surveillance video abusing elementary age infant daughter.
A Grand Rapids, Minnesota couple are facing charges of child torture after investigators say they beat and neglected their elementary-school-aged daughter along with subjecting her to ongoing torture.
Vivian Wahlstrom, 24, and Jaymeson Wahlstrom, 27, are each charged with one count of child torture, with the Itasca County Attorney’s Office describing the case ‘as one of the worst cases of child abuse they’ve ever investigated.’
A Google Nest camera in the girl’s bedroom allegedly captured the abuse according to the Grand Rapids Police Department who began investigating in October after the girl showed up to school with a large black eye and yellow bruise on her upper right arm, KSTP reported.
Bedroom horrors
Officers talked with the girl who told them her father had inflicted the bruise on her, police said. Investigators spoke to the father and he described the girl as having ‘significant needs’ and that he and his wife were trying to get her into therapy but there were long waiting lists, according to a criminal affidavit.
Doctors found at least 20 bruises on her arms, mouth, ribs, back, thighs, shoulders, face and ears, cops wrote. A review of surveillance tape inside the girl’s room showed the child on one day being physically struck more than 80 times.
Authorities then went to the home and saw that the girl’s room according to a criminal complaint consisting of a ‘bare, urine-stained mattress on the floor, one blanket, a pile of dirty dishes with moldy food on them, and a TV.’
The girl was ‘confined to her room, often from the time school ends until the time she goes to school the next day,’ according to the complaint. The girl was seen playing with an empty McDonald’s box, as there were no toys in the room.
‘pulled by the hair, thrown, body slammed, dangled by her legs’
Charges say the couple made their daughter ask permission to do basic tasks, such as using the bathroom and blowing her nose, and they would often ignore those requests.
The camera also recorded the girl being beaten, kicked, stomped on, punched, slapped, pulled by the hair, thrown, body slammed, dangled by her legs, smothered with a blanket, slammed into a wall, and grabbed by the throat. There were also instances of the parents withholding food as punishment.
Of note, the couple according to social media are shown to have three children.
The defendants next court date is set for Dec. 26. Bail without conditions was set at $200,000 for Vivian and $160,000 for Jaymeson.
If convicted, each parent faces up to 25 years in prison.
