True Crime with Rachel Shannon
The Most EVIL Case I've Ever Seen: Mother Allowed ENTIRE Family to Torture her Child to Death
Sat, 24 May 2025
Jeremiah Valencia was born to a careless, selfish mother who allowed him to be abused and tortured. This case reveals how an entire family participated in the horrific beating of this innocent child using brass knuckles, a homemade spear, and a hammer. Jeremiah suffered greatly until his bruised and battered body could no longer endure the pain. What kind of disturbed monsters can inflict this much suffering on such an innocent child? Go watch my other episodes on Spotify: The Disturbing Case of Stephanie ParzeShe Tried to Warn Them About her Son, Then he was MURDERED. THE CASE OF GUNNAR SCHUMACHER7 Year old’s Strange Death Reveals Mom’s DISGUSTING Secret: Did She Starve her for Attention?!Thank you guys for watching, hope to see you next time!
Chapter 1: What happened to Jeremiah Valencia?
Jeremiah may have lost his life, but he's going to give life to a hell of a lot of kids.
His death will not be in vain. Shows that Jeremiah was in that kennel, and that's likely where he took his final breath.
Your mother was getting mad at Jeremiah, and so he put him in the dog cage in the living room.
They also called Pena a drug addict, which her mother says in part led to her grandson's death.
Today's case is one that I know is going to stick with you for a very long time, if not for the rest of your life. On this channel, we shed light on some of the most sick, twisted, and brutal things human beings are capable of. But truly, words can't come close to describing how horrific this case is.
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Chapter 2: What was the background of Jeremiah's family?
This child suffered so much pain and torment at the hands of people who were supposed to protect him. It's heartbreaking, sickening, and again, just as a warning, this case will absolutely infuriate you. But with that being said, let's just jump right into the details of this case.
Jeremiah Valencia was born on December 6, 2003, to Tracy Ann Pena and Andrew Valencia, and he was living in Nambe, New Mexico, which is just north of Santa Fe. From the time Jeremiah was born, he had a rough life. Both his mother and father were in and out of jail for various reasons, with his father being sent to prison when Jeremiah was just six years old.
That was the last time Andrew saw his son. For the years that followed, Jeremiah and his younger sister lived on and off with their mother. There was one time in which Jeremiah and his sister were removed from the home and placed into the care of their grandparents while DCFS investigated Tracy. However, they were ultimately placed back into her care.
Eventually Tracy's boyfriend, 42 year old Thomas Ferguson, as well as Thomas's son, 19 year old Jordan Nunez moved in with the family. Jeremiah was described by loved ones as fearless, active, and outgoing. He was definitely a handful full of energy. He made the most of every day. He was known to be really sweet and helpful and not shy around anybody.
He would walk up to just about anyone and introduce himself, making friends very easily. He loved Batman, cars, sports, getting messy, and building things. He was an intelligent kid with a bright future ahead of him.
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Chapter 3: How did the abuse escalate in Jeremiah's life?
But unfortunately, everything that Jeremiah was looking forward to in life would be brutally and violently ripped away from him by the very people who were supposed to care for him and protect him. Jeremiah never stood a chance, and when you find out what happened to this poor, sweet, 13-year-old boy, you will be absolutely disgusted. This case starts in January of 2018.
At the time, both 35-year-old Tracy and her boyfriend, then 42-year-old Thomas, were in jail after violating their probation. Thomas's probation was from a past case back in 2014, where he had pleaded guilty to kidnapping and battery of a family member. Already, we're seeing the type of person Thomas was.
Meanwhile, Tracy had been on probation after pleading guilty in August of 2018 to charges of concealing evidence in relation to drug possession. While in jail, Tracy confided in another inmate about a secret she had been keeping. A very dark, disturbing secret. What Tracy told this inmate was shocking, so she brought this information to a prison guard.
This inmate told the guard that Tracy said that back in November of 2017, she came home to find her son dead and was blaming her boyfriend for his death. She said that her boyfriend forced her to help dispose of his body and keep his death a secret. Those are the main details Tracy gave this inmate, but of course this inmate was disturbed to say the least.
The guard then took this statement to other prison officials who started an investigation into the claims. Of course, rumors like this can run rampant around jails, people confessing to random things they didn't do, sometimes to cop a deal, or sometimes to make themselves look tougher to the other inmates.
Sometimes, people will make things up and put the blame on someone else who they have beef with to make them look bad. But still, these claims were worth looking into because this was a very serious situation if it were true. First, prison staff did confirm that Tracy did have a son as well as a younger daughter.
From there, staff started listening in on Tracy's prison phone calls, and they heard one call that piqued their interest. They heard Tracy on the phone with her boyfriend, Thomas, saying that she was crying about something that happened.
She wasn't specific with it, but she was clearly distraught when speaking with Thomas and he was trying to sort of calm the situation down and making it not seem like a big deal. But Tracy obviously thought that whatever was going on was a pretty big deal. After this call, investigators took Tracy in for an interview where they asked her about her son.
At first, she said that Jeremiah had run away from the home and she didn't know where he was. That is what she was upset about. But after some pushing from investigators, Tracy gave them more information about what was really going on. Tracy told them that back in November of 2017, she was getting out of jail for a previous charge. When she returned home, she found that Jeremiah was dead.
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Chapter 4: What were the circumstances of Jeremiah's death?
Upon examining his body at the scene, they found that he was wearing a diaper at the time of his death, again, despite the fact that he was a teenager. His body also showed clear signs of being abused. Although there was no blood present on his body, it was obvious that Jeremiah Valencia had been brutally beaten and tortured before his tragic death.
Immediately after the discovery of little Jeremiah's body, both Tracy and Thomas were charged with child abuse resulting in death, tampering with evidence, and conspiracy to tamper with evidence. Then, Thomas' adult son, Jordan, was also charged in connection with Jeremiah's death.
They said that since Jordan was an adult at the time, he could have reported the abuse or at least done something to try and stop it, but he did nothing. And I also want to mention that he went with Thomas to help dispose of Jeremiah's body. At this time, investigators knew that Jeremiah had been abused to death.
However, as the investigation continued, the devastating truth of just how much Jeremiah suffered before his death was uncovered. And let me tell you, it's so, so much worse than you could ever imagine. First, after Jeremiah's body was found, he was sent off to the medical examiner's office for an autopsy.
There, they found numerous old and new injuries which indicated that Jeremiah had suffered physical abuse and torture for months before he was beaten one final time. resulting in his death. Some of the injuries Jeremiah suffered included multiple jaw fractures, one of which was so bad that the bone was protruding through his gums. The fracture was likely sustained on the day he was killed.
He had suffered multiple broken ribs and multiple bone fractures in his hand. He had a displaced eyeball as well as tears and abrasions to his scalp, cheek, and ear. According to the medical examiner, there were injuries consistent with a sexual assault as well, though that couldn't be definitively stated. They also stated that there were parts of his body that appeared to have been burned.
Then, according to the toxicology report, Jeremiah had both alcohol and meth in his system, so he was most likely forced to consume these substances. I will note that the state of decomposition he was in by that point made the autopsy difficult, so there were some answers that they couldn't give definitively. We don't know for sure if he was truly sexually assaulted.
We also don't know if he was actually burned, but it does appear that way. Though again, we don't know 100%. Jeremiah's cause of death was determined to be the result of blunt force trauma and his manner of death. As the autopsy was being conducted, of course, detectives also started their investigation into what was really going on within that home.
First, they looked into Thomas Ferguson's background and what they found was disturbing, yet, I must say, Not all that surprising given what we know now. Turns out Thomas Ferguson had a long history of criminal behavior starting back in 1997 when he was convicted for possession of methamphetamine. After that, he has numerous other offenses relating to domestic violence and abuse towards animals.
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Chapter 5: What charges were brought against the family?
For this, he was sentenced to nine years with seven years and seven months suspended. If he messed up at all during his probation, he would return to jail for the full nine years. This was a ridiculously light sentence for someone who literally kidnapped and beat someone if those are the charges that he pled guilty to.
I don't know how he only spent a year and a half in jail for this, but I digress. While he and this victim dated, the sister of the victim said that those two never got along because she was a strong woman with a big personality and he hated her for that, being the sister, not the victim. Instead, he would always choose women who weren't in the best places in their lives.
women with criminal backgrounds who used drugs and had children. He found that these women were easy to manipulate and control, and if they didn't comply with what he wanted, he could use their children as leverage, hold them over their heads to get what he wanted. And according to Tracy Pena, that is exactly how it was in her relationship with Thomas. He abused her and controlled her.
Eventually, he and his son Jordan moved in with Tracy and her children, and while there, he abused the children within the home. Despite the fact that Tracy was aware of this, she was too afraid to do anything. However, there would be some information uncovered that led investigators to believe that neither Tracy or Jordan are as much of victims in this case as they'd like you to think.
Now, as officers continued their investigation, they spoke with Jeremiah's younger sister, who was 12 years old at the time, and what she had to say was disturbing. She said that living with Thomas was miserable. He was always angry, always taking it out on everyone in the home. He would hit Tracy, her, Jeremiah, and the dogs. But it seemed that Jeremiah got the worst of it.
For basically the entire time that Thomas lived with them, he would physically punish Jeremiah. This started with having him stand in the fireplace or stand up in a locked closet for hours at a time so that Thomas could always keep an eye on him, always knew exactly where he was and what he was doing.
At one point, Thomas removed every single item from Jeremiah's room and then forced him to stay in that room for prolonged periods of time. But then, around Halloween time, the abuse and torture escalated drastically. Every single day for an entire month, Thomas would beat Jeremiah in one way or another. Thomas would beat Jeremiah with brass knuckles.
He would use Jeremiah as target practice for his homemade spear throwing it at him and poking and stabbing him with it. Then he would drop a five pound sledgehammer on his hands, hence all of those broken bones in his hand. He also forced Jeremiah to wear a shock collar.
According to his sister, Jeremiah constantly had to wear the shock collar either around his neck or legs and everyone within that home would take turns using the remote to shock him. Then Thomas started locking Jeremiah in a small plastic dog crate and leaving him in there for hours upon hours at a time, leaving him without food or water.
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Chapter 6: What did the autopsy reveal about Jeremiah's abuse?
He also put up security cameras all around the place so he could constantly watch what was going on in that home. It got to the point that by November of 2017, Jeremiah was so malnourished, so weak from being immobilized for so long that he could barely walk. He hobbled around using a cane, hardly even being able to stand up straight. Again, despite the fact that he was a 13 year old little boy.
By November 26th, Jeremiah's sister explained that they were all about to leave the home to go pick up Tracy from jail. But then Thomas got angry at Jeremiah for whatever reason and locked him in that dog cage. There, Jeremiah eventually fell asleep, but then Thomas started flipping the dog cage and tossing it all around, trying to wake Jeremiah up.
Eventually, Thomas pulled him out of the dog cage and gave Jeremiah a beating. By the end of the beating, it appeared to the sister that Jeremiah was unconscious and at that point Jeremiah was in horrible condition. He had a black eye. The cuts on his body were all infected and nasty. He had a tooth knocked out after being punched in the face.
It's thought that this beating is what caused his jaw to break so bad that the bone protruded through his gums. But by that point, Jeremiah was still alive. After the beating and shaking around the dog cage, Jeremiah was put back inside the crate. By that point, according to Jeremiah's sister, Jordan joined in and started flipping the dog crate and rattling it around.
It was after the dog crate was flipped by Jordan that Jeremiah actually died from his injuries. That is what sent him over the edge. After realizing that Jeremiah was dead, he and his father took Jeremiah's body to the tub and washed him before putting him into the bed. According to investigators, there was no blood on Jeremiah due to him being washed after the beating.
However, there was a small amount of blood near the door in Jeremiah's bedroom as well as around the fireplace of the home. This is probably where the majority of the beatings took place.
He was always angry and he was always being mean.
My mother was getting mad at Jeremiah and so he put him in the dog cage in the living room. He was really skinny and he was
All his cuffs were infected. He started to flip the cage, and I told him, just leave him alone. And he didn't. And then he pulled him out.
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Chapter 7: What was Thomas Ferguson's background?
Specifically, they found two Facebook accounts registered to Jordan, another two registered to Thomas, and then one registered to Tracy. By January 7th, investigators found messages from Thomas to Jordan that talk about how Jordan doesn't respect Thomas and makes reference to Jeremiah being gone.
Now, I do want to note that these messages are written with a lot of typos and are pretty difficult to read, so bear with me. In one message, Thomas wrote, Jordan, the troublemaker's gone. You got rid of his expletive, and now you're starting to get like him. And you have started lying to me, son, about things that you have been doing and done. Jordan replied, I do respect you.
I'm just unwanted here, and that's cool. But I can see in yours and Tracy's and my sister's eyes, you all don't want me here ever since that expletive happened. They look at me like I did it all by myself. They did it too. He continued, I miss that expletive too. I feel bad for what I did and if I could do things differently, I would have, but I can't. I have nightmares.
I think about that kid every day because I looked in his eyes as he left. I see that look every day. Of course, it can be gathered from these messages that Jordan is in fact the one who took Jeremiah's life. Thomas bears most of the responsibility for beating him within inches of his life, and the rest of the family do bear responsibility for how poorly they treated him.
But Jordan was technically the one who ended Jeremiah's life. After finding out this information, Jordan was charged with child abuse resulting in death. So now, all three individuals who played a role in Jeremiah's appalling and disturbing death have been charged. As they awaited their respective trials in jail, they all continued to deny responsibility.
each pointing the finger at the next person. Tracy couldn't do anything because she was abused by Thomas and was scared of him. Thomas was straight up denying abusing Jeremiah, saying that he died after they innocently roughhoused. Jordan also denied ever doing anything to Jeremiah.
Despite this, each individual was scheduled to get their time in courts to decide what really happened to this sweet, innocent little boy. That was until Thomas took that opportunity away in his one final act of selfishness. By the evening of April 30, 2018, a guard was making his round in the Santa Fe County Jail when he made it to Thomas' cell.
There, he found Thomas Ferguson dead after he hung himself from the cell's window. After finding Thomas' body, the guard found an envelope lying on a small desk in that cell. In that envelope, there was a letter which Thomas had apparently written to profess his innocence.
The letter has not been released to the public, but I can only imagine that he probably spewed the most pathetic BS imaginable. And instead of just taking accountability for his role in torturing an innocent child, he took the coward's way out and took his own life before he had to face responsibility for what he did.
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Chapter 8: How did the investigation unfold?
There were times where she would stay locked in her room for days at a time doing drugs, not caring to protect them or remove them from Thomas's abuse. This aunt said that she always told Tracy that the kids could stay with her whenever they needed, but Tracy wouldn't allow that. She knew what was happening to her son and she allowed it to happen.
Yes, she may have been scared, but she had plenty of opportunities to get help and never bothered to. Therefore, she is responsible for the abuse, torture, and death of her son, 13-year-old Jeremiah. And again, the defense was basically claiming that Tracy was under Thomas' thumb, she was being horrifically abused, and was so scared that she felt she couldn't do anything to save Jeremiah.
She could have been killed if she tried doing anything. After hearing from multiple witnesses and hearing arguments on both sides, the judge came to their decision for Tracy's sentence. They did acknowledge that Tracy was not an active participant in Jeremiah's abuse. She never laid a hand on him. She just allowed the abuse and torture to happen.
They also talked about how Jeremiah's body was found with Tracy's help. She did eventually tell investigators what happened and without her confession, who knows how long it would have taken to even realize that Jeremiah was missing. They also acknowledged that she was abused. She was also a victim. However, that didn't mean she couldn't do anything.
If she truly wanted out of the situation, if she truly cared enough about her kids, she would have done so much more to protect them. With all factors considered, at the end of this, Tracy was sentenced to 12 years in prison for her role in Jeremiah's death.
13-year-old Jeremiah Valencia was beaten, left in a dog crate, forced to wear diapers, and ultimately killed, allegedly, by Tomas Ferguson and his son, Jordan Nunez, last year in Nambe. In court today, prosecutors say Ferguson kept his girlfriend, Tracy Pena, drugged up, locked up, and under video surveillance. They also called Pena a drug addict, which her mother says, in part,
led to her grandson's death. District Attorney Marco Serna pointed out Pena led them to Jeremiah's body in this shallow grave off a road near Nambe, but he says because she did not speak up, her son was murdered.
And we did have a mother who said that she was guilty of causing the child's death by her inaction, because that's essentially what happened. She was present and didn't do anything about it.
Now, onto what happened with Jordan Nunez. By late 2020, Jordan also pleaded guilty to one count of permitting child abuse resulting in death and two counts of tampering with evidence. The prosecution stated that Jordan was an active participant in the torture and abuse of Jeremiah. He witnessed Thomas beating Jeremiah and keeping him in that dog crate, yet did nothing to help him.
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