In every neighborhood, there’s always that weird neighbor whom gossips love to pick on.
But such neighbors who are expressive of their eccentricity are mostly pretty harmless. It’s those perfect neighbors that are conspicuous. It’s not, however, a reason to be alarmed, because no matter how good psychotic neighbors hide their true colors, sooner or later, it’ll show. Sometimes it wouldn’t hurt being a bit nosy.
A neighborhood watch could certainly come in handy if you have neighbors like the Weyants.
Joshua and Brandi Weyant live with their three children in Halifax, Pennsylvania. They were the typical friendly neighbors – or so they seemed. Joshua kept the yard tidy while Brandi cooked and shared food with neighbors.
Kids were usually playing in the yard at weekends and went to school during weekdays. All seemed well until suddenly, only the toys were in the yard and none of the kids went out the house nor went to school. Joshua also stopped cleaning the yard. The neighbors may have wondered why but none of them bothered to ask the couple.
The once jolly house full of kids suddenly turned quiet for weeks. Up until one day when that silence shattered after the police visited the house following a request from the children’s school. The kids have been absent from school for quite some time without some notice or excuse letter.
The police were shocked at their discovery. All three children were locked in a room, and it looked like they were starved to death. They were all skin and bones and clearly very weak.
“I knew [Joshua had] been through some rough times, but he seemed like a good man, or at least that’s the way he portrayed himself,” one neighbor said.
The police tried to interview the couple and find out what sick reason they had, but none of what they said made any sense. Joshua told the police “that he didn’t want the children overfed.” Brandi blamed her husband for what happened but kept saying these kids aren’t their biological children when records show they are.
The children were a 6-year-old boy and two girls of ages 5 and 4. If starving them wasn’t sick enough, the arrest affidavit tells a more disturbing revelation. “They were underweight, and their skin was caked with animal hair, dirt, feces, and urine.” as per pennlive.com. They also told the police that they were locked in a bedroom with no heat during times of freezing weather and were also violently assaulted.
The couple was arrested that day December 16, 2016. The kids were taken to the hospital to be treated and nurtured. Later on, they were taken to foster homes. Five months later Chief Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Gettle said the Weyant children were doing well and had doubled their weight unlike before when according to her, “They looked like they walked out of a concentration camp.”
Initial investigation revealed that the parents conspired on this atrocity, just because the husband Joshua Weyant decided he no longer wanted them.
According to National Children’s Alliance statistics, in the US alone, nearly 700,000 children have abused annually. It’s an alarming number for an underrated offense against the fragile heirs of our nation.
I hope we learned a valuable lesson here. By doing our small part as concerned and watchful neighbors, horrific events like this can be avoided.