True Crime with Rachel Shannon
WICKED: "Mother" From HELL Tortures and Starves Her Disabled Son to Death: Shanda Vander Ark
Fri, 28 Feb 2025
On July 6th, 2022, 911 received a call from the home where Timothy Ferguson lived with his mother, Shanda Vander Ark, to report that Timothy was unresponsive. Shanda told authorities that Timothy accidentally fell off the top bunk of his bed, and injured himself that way. However, after further investigation, police realized that what Timothy had actually was nothing short of horrific. How could a "mother" do such wicked and barbaric things to her OWN son?!
Chapter 1: What happened to Timothy Ferguson?
Jeder Läufer kennt diesen Moment, wenn es einfach klickt. Wenn deine Beine einfach mitgehen, der Schmerz nachlässt, die Zweifel weg sind und du nur noch das Runners High spürst. Das ist der Grund, warum du so früh aufstehst. Warum dich ein bisschen Regen nicht aufhält. Warum Laufen zum Ritual wird. Also laufe und fühle das Runners High. Go Wild und erfahre mehr übers Laufen auf puma.de
v.a.
Kinder mit Behinderungen. Kinder mit Behinderungen verdienen Eltern und Anwesende, die ihre Verhältnisse für das, was sie sind, sehen. Symptome ihrer Behinderung. So viele Kinder mit Behinderungen erleben die Welt so anders als die Rest der Bevölkerung.
Sie hören Dinge anders, fühlen Dinge anders und manchmal kann die Welt extrem überwältigend sein, schädelnde oder unerwartete Verhältnisse zu verursachen. But for those children, they don't just need harsher punishment. They need somebody who will understand them and teach them strategies for how to cope, how to handle their emotions and self-regulate.
Someone who will teach them kindly and patiently what behaviors are acceptable and what behaviors are not. Because children aren't just born with coping mechanisms. They aren't born with the ability to understand the world around them. Unfortunately, Timothy Ferguson was robbed of that. Unfortunately, Timothy Ferguson was robbed of that.
Hello everyone, my name is Rachel Shannon and welcome to another true crime video. Nun, das ist wahrscheinlich einer der schlimmsten Fälle, die ich je hier auf meinem Kanal besprochen habe. Die Dinge, die Timothy durchgeführt hat, sind horrend. Und wenn du lernst, wie es alles passieren konnte, wirst du deinen Stomach schmerzen.
Also nur eine Warnung für diejenigen von euch, die Fälle, die Kinder betreffen, nicht umsetzen können. Diese Fälle sind schrecklich und werden schwer zu hören sein. Also, wenn du damit bereits sensibel bist, dann ist dieses Video nicht für dich.
Aber trotz dessen, wie komfortabel dieses Video sein wird, trotz dessen, wie schwer es ist, die Details zu hören, muss die Geschichte von Timothy erzählt werden. So, mit dem gesagt, gehen wir in den Fall. Das ist die Geschichte von Timothy. Timothy R. Ferguson wurde am 6. August 2006 mit seiner Mutter, Shonda van der Ark, geboren und mit seinem Vater, Eric Ferguson.
Timothy hatte vier Brüder insgesamt. Nun, ich glaube, es gibt einige andere Brüder da draußen. Es gibt mehr Großbrüder. But the ones that they talk about the most are these four. So he had an older brother named Paul who was 19 years old and he had a younger brother who was seven at the time who was only referred to as G in court.
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Chapter 2: What led to the investigation of Shanda Vander Ark?
According to Shonda, she asked Eric for certain documents to help her have actual custody, but he wouldn't provide those documents. Sie hat auch gesagt, dass sie versucht hat, Timothy zur öffentlichen Schule zu gehen, aber weil sie nicht die richtigen Dokumente hatte, konnte sie das nicht. Wegen dessen hat Shonda ihn für ein Home-Schooling-Programm eingeladen.
Wir kommen darauf später im Video zurück. Auf der Außenwelt sah es aus, als hätte Timothy keine Probleme, in sein neues Leben zu überwachen. Ja, es wäre schwer, aber er war zurück zu Hause mit seiner Mutter, die ihre zwei anderen Kinder mit ihrem neuen Mann betreut hatte. Seit diesen 2012-Angelegenheiten gab es keine anderen Probleme. Sie war in ihrem persönlichen Leben erfolgreich.
Sie war klar intelligent und arbeitslos. Also gab es keinen Grund, zu denken, dass Shonda nur eine kapable, kompetente Mutter war. Was aber hinter den Szenen stattfand, war absolut horrifisch. Verrücktheit über das, was jeder sich vorstellen konnte, das ein Kind durchgehen könnte. Um 6.37 Uhr am Morgen des 6.
Juli 2022 erhielt die Nordsteuerische Polizei eine Anrufung von Timothys älteren Bruder Paul, die berichtet hat, dass sie Timothy in der Wohnung totgefunden haben. Als die Polizei herrschte, gingen sie nach unten in den Wohnzimmer, wo sie den 15-jährigen Timothy Ferguson auf dem Boden totgefunden haben.
Initially, Shonda told officers that Timothy had been injured after falling off the top bunk in the bed that he was sleeping in. However, when officers assessed the scene and found Timothy's body, they knew that there was so much more going on than Shonda was letting on.
When they first entered the home, the police found that 7-year-old child running around, as well as Paul in the home, Timothy's older brother. Neither of them had any signs of abuse or neglect or anything like that. Both of them had seemed to have at least been treated decently.
However, when examining Timothy's body, they found that he was wearing a sweatshirt, as well as a pair of jeans that looked to be way too big for him, as well as an adult diaper. Er sah extrem missbraucht aus, hatte absolut kein Fett oder Muskel auf seinem Körper. Die ersten Antworten beantworteten, dass er Haut und Beine hatte. In Wahrheit, damals, war 15-jähriger Timothy nur 69 Pfund.
Wir werden in wenigen Minuten mehr über Timothys Situation zurückkommen. In the home, investigators found that there were motion-activated cameras all throughout the home and there were locks on the freezer and fridge as well as an alarm on the pantry. Then, when police went into the basement, as soon as they got in there, they said that there was an overwhelming smell of feces and urine.
They described that Timothy's bed was in the common area of the basement, so that was his makeshift bedroom. In that bedroom there were cameras everywhere with a camera facing his bed and another camera under Timothy's bed.
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Chapter 3: How did Timothy's living conditions affect him?
His body had broken down so badly from the starvation that his muscles had wasted away and his ligaments were detaching from the bone. Based on this, of course, Shonda was arrested and charged with her son's murder as well as on child abuse charges.
Nach weiteren Untersuchungen entdeckte die Polizei tatsächlich Textmessungen zwischen Shonda und ihrem 19-jährigen Sohn Paul, die zeigen, dass er sehr viel in der Verbrechung und Zerstörung seines 15-jährigen Bruders beteiligt war. Ein paar Tage nachdem Shonda verhaftet und beurteilt wurde, brachten die Polizei Paul in die Station, um ihn zu beurteilen.
und was Paul zu sagen hatte, war bemerkenswert, um es so zu sagen. Nun, bevor wir in das, was Paul zu sagen hatte, über alles sprechen, möchte ich jetzt bemerken, dass, basierend auf den Textmessagen zwischen Paul und Shonda, es klar war, dass Paul mit seinem Bruder frustriert war. Er grew sick of his behaviors, even saying in one text message, I'm ready to kill Timothy.
In other messages the two of them both accused Timothy of faking his special needs.
Als sie darüber sprachen, wie sie Timothy verurteilt haben, was ich in einer Minute beschreiben werde, hat Paul seine Mutter geschrieben, dass er immer noch dumm versucht hat, aber ich werde dir morgen noch mehr erzählen, während ich dich zur Arbeit bringe, wie viele verschiedene Wege ich beweisen kann, dass er verurteilt hat. Er tut es immer noch, aber es ist außergewöhnlich.
Also, meiner Meinung nach, denke ich, dass Paul frustriert war, Timothy zu haben und nicht unbedingt mag, mit ihm zu handeln. But according to Paul, most of the abuse and punishments were at the direction of his mother. So Paul told investigators that Timothy had started sneaking into the pantry and taking food that he didn't need, such as sweets and other snacks.
Because of that, Shonda started putting locks on the pantry and freezer and fridge. Starting in January of 2022, just after the stroke, Timothy was no longer to leave the house at all. Again, he was homeschooled, so he also didn't go to school. The only time he was allowed outside was to walk their dog behind the house in the backyard so that nobody could see him.
There were also physical punishments that he had to endure outside. If he got in trouble, he would have to run up and down the stairs outside as fast as he could. And if he didn't go fast enough, Paul would have to chase closely behind him to make him go faster. The investigators also asked Paul about all of the cameras that were found in the home.
According to Paul, those cameras were used to basically surveil Timothy 24-7. Now, Shonda and Paul worked almost opposite schedules. Shonda worked during the day, basically 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., while Paul worked from about 4 p.m. to close at Applebee's. So, there was almost always someone available to monitor what Timothy was doing.
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Chapter 4: What were the details of the abuse Timothy suffered?
Again, he was restricted food, but it got to the point where Shonda just completely stopped feeding him. The only time he was allowed to eat was when he was in trouble and he was forced to eat bread that was covered in hot sauce. And only when he ate the entire piece of bread was he allowed to eat a normal piece of bread, a plain piece of bread. Sometimes when he got in trouble,
Er würde Hot Sauce direkt in seinen Mund geben. Und, wenn das nicht schlecht klingt, haben sie keinen normalen Hot Sauce benutzt. Sie haben einen gekauft, der zwei der weltweit heißesten Pfeffer enthält, den Trinidad Skorpion und den Carolina Reaper. Auf der Seite des Bottles schreibt es, By April of 2022, investigators found text messages where Paul texted his mother
that Timothy went into the trash can and got a hold of some crust to a bun from a burger and ate that crust. In response, Shonda told Paul to make him throw it up because he wasn't allowed to be eating.
According to Paul, he shoved his finger to the back of Timothy's throat and tried to force him to throw up, but I believe at that time he didn't actually throw up, so he had to do it multiple more times. But nothing came up. This wasn't the only time that Shonda ordered Paul to make Timothy throw up. This was something that happened four or five times, according to Paul.
Another form of punishment, according to Paul, was that they would force Timothy to take ice baths. Sie füllen den Kühlschrank mit dem kaltesten Wasser, das möglich ist, das aus dem Kühlschrank kommt. Dann bekommen sie alle Eis aus der Eismaschine und füllen den Kühlschrank so voll wie möglich. Normalerweise machen sie ihn in diesem kaltes Eis für 30 Minuten auf einmal sitzen.
According to Paul, when he did this, Shonda would watch on the camera that was in the bathroom. He said that Shonda ordered him to watch Timothy in that ice bath the entire 30 minutes to make sure that he couldn't get comfortable. He wasn't allowed to rest his head on the bathtub. He wasn't allowed to just sit still. Er musste in den schlimmsten Positionen sein, die möglich sind.
Und Paul musste sicher machen, dass Timothy das Wasser nicht heiß machen würde, um das Wasser wärmer und komfortabler zu machen. Er musste kühlen und er musste sitzen, in einer Weise, die für ihn schmerzhaft war. Was für mich ein weiteres Level von psychotisch ist. Der Fakt, dass du dieses Kind in einem Eisbad für 30 Minuten zu Beginn sitzt, ist brutal.
Und dann, um das noch zu sagen, kann er nicht mal in ihm aufstehen. Er kann nicht seinen Kopf aufstehen. Er kann nicht sitzen, wie ein normaler Mensch in einem Bathtub wäre. Er musste entweder an seiner Seite sitzen, oder seine Beine da drin haben, oder einfach in einer Position sitzen, die sie wussten, dass es für ihn schmerzhaft wäre.
It just adds another element to this that is very, very disturbing. By June 13th, investigators found more text messages that Paul sent to Shonda. In the text, Paul sent his mother a photo of Timothy, saying that he was getting concerned about how skinny Timothy was getting. Again, he was not allowed to eat. He was really only allowed to eat bread with hot sauce.
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Chapter 5: What were the responses of Shonda and Paul during the investigation?
Sie hatten nicht genug Kleidung für Timothy, damit er sich in seine eigenen Kleidung befindet. Sie haben Timothy dann von der Klosthalle in den offenen Basementflur mit den Kleidungen angezogen, bevor sie die Geschichte über 911 erzählen würden. Shonda sagte Paul, dass er den Polizisten erzählen wollte, dass Timothy auf einer Hungerstrecke war.
Nach dem Vertrauen, hat Paul 911 angerufen, um zu informieren, was passiert ist. Es gab also fast 20 Minuten, bis Paul seine Bruders totes Körper gesehen hat, bis sie 911 angerufen haben. Nachdem die Polizei aufgerufen hat und die Beweise aus der Szene gekriegt hat und Timothys Körper entfernt hat, wurden sie, laut Paul, in der Haustür für ein bisschen allein.
Police left, so they weren't actively monitoring Shonda and Paul. It was at that time, according to Paul, that Shonda started getting to work to get rid of the evidence.
She threw away the vibration detectors that they had used to torture Timothy and discarded one of the cameras that police didn't confiscate, breaking the memory chip in that camera into four pieces so they could never see what was on it. So, I know that was a lot to hear.
But this is everything that Paul claims poor Timothy went through in the six to seven months that he was with Shonda after Adam left the home. According to Paul, it was all at the direction of his mother Shonda. But clearly, Paul was just as much a part of the abuse as Shonda was. So because of this, Paul was arrested and charged with first degree child abuse.
Now, as the preparations for trial were taking place, Shonda was claiming that she suffered from severe mental ailments that prevented her from understanding what she did. She claimed that she suffered from ADHD, sensory processing disorder, OCD, as well as PTSD from her husband's stroke. At the time, Shonda also had a service dog that she kept because she had blood sugar issues.
The dog would alert her anytime she had dangerously low blood sugar. However, because of this, she stated that she would have episodes of blacking out and not remembering things. I will come back to this more in just a minute, but that is what she claimed. So she tried to say that she was not competent to stand trial.
But after undergoing psychiatric evaluations, they came back determining that Shonda was perfectly capable of going to trial. She understood the charges against her and was able to participate in her own defense. Meanwhile, Paul actually pleaded guilty to charges of child abuse and he agreed to testify against his mother about what she and him put Timothy through.
The trial for premeditated murder started in December of 2023. The prosecution laid out everything that Shonda had done to torture and abuse Timothy for months until his death on July 6th, 2022. She starved him, forced him to take ice baths,
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Chapter 6: What evidence was presented during the trial?
He was sneaking food that was not necessary at that time. und es wurde geschlossen, indem er Locken auf den Friseur, den Friseur und den Pantry gelegt hat.
Wenn man sagt, dass er nicht nötig war, wer würde das beurteilen, dass es nicht nötig war? Shonda. Welche Art von Essen reden wir darüber, dass er nicht nötig war?
Süße oder etwas, auf das er seine Hände haben konnte.
War es jemals eine physische Disziplin, die mit ihm draußen war?
Yes. What was that discipline? He was made to run up and down the patio stairs.
So those are stairs in the back of your house? Yes, sir. Are those visible at all from the front of the house? No, sir. Visible to anyone walking by on the street or driving by, anything of that nature? No, sir. There are some text messages referenced in there where... Es gibt eine Diskussion darüber, wie man die Stähle fährt, wie man sie fährt.
Was ist das, wenn Sie sich das erinnern? Folgen nahe hinter ihm, um sicherzustellen, dass er schneller bewegt. Und wer wäre derjenige, der ihn fährt, wenn das geschehen würde? I had to.
There's been some testimony already about Timothy going on a hunger strike around the time of Adam's stroke. To your knowledge, did Timothy ever go on a hunger strike when Adam had his stroke? No, sir. There's also a reference in going on another hunger strike about two weeks before he passed away. Excuse me, did that happen?
No, sir.
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Chapter 7: How did the trial conclude regarding Shonda's culpability?
Yes, sir.
And for how long would he have to do these things? Several hours. And that was inside his closet, for lack of a better way of putting it, what you referred to as the small room, correct? Yes, sir. At some point, did you utilize some type of alarm or alarms on his body to alert you if he was moving? A vibration detector, yes. Was there more than one that he was required to wear at times?
At times, yes. Where were those devices located on his body?
They were normally tied to the back loop of his belt, or the back loop of his pants, I apologize.
Wurde da auch etwas auf seinem Rücken gelegt?
Handtücher und vor allem Zip-Tücher.
Zip-Tücher. Wenn du Zip-Tücher sagst, sind die zusammen mit Zip-Tüchern? Ja. Und diese wurden für was gestrickt? Bewegung. Von welcher Seite seines Körpers? Seiner Hände. I think there's a text exchange that the jury's heard a couple of times where it's referencing him tightening those zip cuffs on his wrist. Do you recall that? Yes, sir.
And so what was happening that caused you to send that text message and had that exchange with your mother about those zip cuffs? He was complaining about them being too tight.
What was your mother's response when he was complaining about those being too tight? To leave them and she'd deal with it after she got home.
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