When Your Mother Is A Monster: The Sad Life of Jeanette Maples

The unfathomable ordeal of Jeanette Maples, a 15-year-old whose life was marred and ultimately ended by those meant to shield her from harm, is laid bare in our latest episode. We recount the nightmare that unraveled in Eugene, Oregon, where Jeanette’s mother, Angela McAnulty, and stepfather, Richard McAnulty, inflicted a chilling regime of abuse. Through the haunting narrative of her final moments, we expose the systemic failures that allowed Jeanette's pleas for help to echo unanswered. Our journey through this dark tale is punctuated by Angela's twisted attempts to hide her heinous actions and Richard's failure to intervene, painting a grim portrait of a household where cruelty, rather than care, ruled.

As we peel back the layers of Jeanette's story, we grapple with the stark realities of child abuse and the dire consequences of inaction. The echoes of a 911 call that came too late serve as a poignant reminder of the precious lives that hang in the balance. This episode is a solemn tribute to Jeanette, a life lost but not forgotten, and a stark warning about the vigilance needed to protect the innocent. We confront the uncomfortable truths head-on, hoping to spark change and honor the memory of a girl whose voice was silenced too soon.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Jeanette Maples was a 15-year-old girl living in Eugene, oregon. She had been a student at Cascade Middle School from 26, where she was known for her immense love of reading. However, in 2008, after graduating from the 8th grade, she became a homeschooled student registered with Lane Education Service District. She lived at home with her mother, angela McCannilty, and Angela's husband, richard McCannilty. Angela McCannolty and Angela's husband, richard McCannolty. Just before 8 pm on the 9th of December 2009, police and paramedics were called to the home in the 150 block of Howard Avenue. Inside, they discovered Jeanette injured and unconscious in the bathtub. According to Angela, jeanette had been asleep in the living room when she simply stopped breathing. Welcome to another episode of Human Wreckage True Crime Podcast. My name is Thomas. I will be taking you through this truly disturbing case. Let's get into it. Jeanette was rushed to Sacred Heart Medical Center at Riverbend and Springfield, but was pronounced dead on arrival.

Speaker 1: 1:10

Upon first glance at Jeanette, it was evident that she had been the victim of prolonged abuse and starvation. Dr Daniel Davis, the pathologist who conducted the autopsy, said that Jeanette had suffered so much harm that was inflicted in so many ways that he could not determine which injury had killed her. She had also completely wasted away. There was no fat on her body and very little muscle tissue. The starvation alone could have been fatal, but there were numerous injuries all across Jeanette's body that were in various stages of healing. There were at least 200 injuries, many of which had been caused. When Jeanette was struck by a manufactured object with a straight machined edge, he discovered that there was a hole in the back of Jeanette's head, which had caused bleeding on her brain. Additionally, jeanette had pneumonia in the form of an abscessed lung that may have sent bacteria into her bloodstream, causing shock and death. The autopsy concluded that Jeanette's death came in the course of or as a result of, intentional maiming and torture.

Speaker 1: 2:08

Later that night, angela McCannolty and her husband, richard McCannolty, were arrested and arraigned and held in the Lane County Jail. Following the arrest, angela's two other children, 12-year-old and 5-year-old, were taken into protective custody. The arrest came to a shock to most who knew the couple. Tom Mersepassie, who had been renting the home out to the couple, said that he couldn't quite believe what they had been accused of. He described them as always coming across as extremely nice and said he never had problems with them. Bobby Stahl, president of Raider Trucking, who had employed Richard as a truck driver for seven years, said that Richard was always an excellent employee.

Speaker 1: 2:47

However, soon enough, a grim history of abuse and torture in the household surfaced. While the family's home was being searched, investigators found a blood-stained broken ruler, two blood-stained belts and tree branch switches covered in blood. They additionally discovered a flesh and blood-spattered room, which was evidently where the abuse occurred. Investigators also found a piece of cardboard covered in blood. The cardboard would be placed under Jeanette as she slept on the floor so that she would not soil the carpet with her blood. When the investigators pulled up the carpet, they found that blood had flowed off the cardboard and through the carpet and its pad, staining a wooden subfloor below. Similar stains were discovered beneath the carpeting of Jeanette's room in the family's previous home as well, indicating that the abuse had been extremely prolonged.

Speaker 1: 3:35

Jeanette was the only child in the household to suffer, and before taking Jeanette away for a beating, angela would turn on a vacuum cleaner and leave it running so that her other children couldn't hear what was happening. On one occasion, jeanette had been punched with such force that her pulverized lip needed stitches. However, angela and Richard didn't take her to the doctors. As a result, her injuries healed from the inside out, leaving her mouth deformed by scar tissue. Far too often, Jeanette's wounds would become open and infected. One such wound on her hip was deep enough that it exposed bone Once again. Angela and Richard didn't take Jeanette to hospital. Instead, somebody in the home used a knife to trim away the dying tissue. Despite the fact that the house was filled with food, jeanette had been systematically starved. In fact, the family's cat and dog ate better than Jeanette. Angela would turn off the water supply to the kitchen tap, leaving Jeanette to drink from the dog's water dish or from the toilet, and she would lock the pantry so that Jeanette couldn't steal food.

Speaker 1: 4:37

Once incarcerated, angela first of all blamed Richard and Jeanette herself for the hundreds of injuries. Over the next few hours of the interrogation, angela changed her story numerous times. However, according to Richard and the couple's five-year-old son, it was Angela that inflicted all of the injuries herself, while Richard did nothing to protect Jeanette. Finally, angela confessed to hitting her daughter with the objects that had been discovered in the home. However, she said I spanked my daughter I don't know how many times, but only on the bottom. I did wrong. It was horrible of me. I am very sorry. I wish I could take it back. I didn't do the injury on the head. I know she probably died from that.

Speaker 1: 5:18

In regards to the hole on Jeanette's head, angela suggested that had come from a fall. When Richard was interrogated, he placed all of the blame on Angela. He said that Jeanette's head. Angela suggested that it had come from a fall. When Richard was interrogated, he placed all of the blame on Angela. He said that Jeanette had long been singled out for mistreatment and on Christmas and Thanksgiving, while the rest of the family were feasting, jeanette would get a peanut butter sandwich While her siblings slept in beds, jeanette slept on a piece of cardboard on the floor. When birthdays rolled around each year, jeanette's siblings would be showered with gifts, but Jeanette would receive nothing. During the interview, richard said that, in addition to the beatings, angela would force Jeanette to stand for hours at a time with her arms raised above her head, even when she could not put weight on one foot because Angela had stomped on it. She also made Jeanette kneel with her hands behind her back for hours on end. According to Richard, he did not seek help for Jeanette because he was ailing from complications of a heart attack and was afraid of his wife. He claimed that Angela controlled the house to the point that he had to ask her to use the bathroom because she kept the door locked, and she was the only one to have a key.

Speaker 1: 6:23

Investigators learned that Jeanette's step-grandmother had called a state hotline on behalf of her after she became concerned that Jeanette was being abused by Angela and Richard. Lynn McCacknellty was Richard's mother and Jeanette's step-grandmother, but she treated Jeanette like she was one of her own. In fact, lynn had called the hotline several times, trying to get somebody to check up on Jeanette and investigate whether she was being abused in the home. Lynn had become concerned about Jeanette's well-being after she noticed that she had a split and swollen lip. When she questioned Angela and Richard about Jeanette's injuries, they had claimed that she had fallen down, but Lynn was extremely skeptical of their allegations. As she described, it looked as though Jeanette had been punched in the face. According to Lynn, she had initially become concerned about Jeanette before the injuries.

Speaker 1: 7:11

Shortly after Jeanette was taken out of school and started homeschooling, lynn had noticed that Jeanette was losing weight drastically and appeared to be more withdrawn. Lynn had questioned Angela regarding Jeanette's appearance and told her to get her checked out, but Angela simply responded by saying that Jeanette was fine. Lynn had relayed her fears to a close friend who had encouraged her to report potential abuse. Lynn reported potential abuse a number of times, the first of which was at least several months before Jeanette was killed. The report she made was anonymous because she feared that if her son and Angela found out that it was her reporting them, she would be forbidden from seeing her grandchildren. In hindsight, lynn said she wished she called the police, but she had believed that CPS would have done their job and checked up on Jeanette. Following the revelation, dr Bruce Goldberg, director of the Oregon Department of Human Services, ordered an internal investigation into whether caseworkers had any contact with the family. It is Oregon law that when a child who is known to state child welfare officials dies or is seriously injured, the Department of Health Services must convene a critical incident response team to comb though the agency's files in contact with the family in question.

Speaker 1: 8:24

On the night of Jeanette's murder, angela had called Lynn. She cried and screamed down the phone that something had happened to Jeanette. She said that she was cold and they couldn't wake her up. Lynn asked Angela if she had called 911, to which Angela said no because she didn't want to go to jail. Lynn then demanded to speak to her son and told he that he better call 911 himself or she'd be on the way over to the house with police. Richard complied and called 911. Lynn called back minutes later and spoke with Angela once again, and Angela told her that she had beaten Jeanette and got carried away.

Speaker 1: 8:59

Later on, after Jeanette had passed away, lynn came to the hospital where she wanted to see her body. However, law enforcement officials convinced her otherwise. They said you don't want to do that. They told me she weighed 50 pounds. According to Lynn, when she arrived at the hospital, her son told her that he had whipped Jeanette. She recalled I told my son you tell the truth, you're to blame, but you're not taking the blame for something someone else did. Lynn told police that she doubted that Richard physically abused Jeanette, but said she believed that he ignored the obvious signs of her distress. She also said that five nights before Jeanette had died, richard had phoned her to say that he was upset because he found Jeanette drinking from a toilet.

Speaker 1: 9:43

According to Kelly Clark, who lived across the street from the family, she very rarely saw Jeanette. On the rare occasion that she spotted her, she said that she always looked down and remained silent. The last time that she saw her, which was in the summer, she said that Jeanette looked especially frail and sad. She said the last picture I have of her in my mind is terrifying. You don't know the guilt I'm feeling because I feel like I should have made more of an effort. I always knew something was not right at that house. Another neighbor, diana Carson, who lived next door, told the media that she had never seen Jeanette. She wasn't even aware that she was living in the house.

Speaker 1: 10:21

Jeanette's father, anthony Maples, soon came forward. He spoke to the media and said that he had not seen or heard from Jeanette in nearly a decade. He had learned of her death and the subsequent arrest of Angela and Richard in a phone call from a social worker. I am so crushed by this. I know that I have to accept this as God's will, but it's disgusting that this happened to my little angel". By this point in the investigation very little was known about the suspects and the victim, but detectives would soon learn that Angela had been the victim of abuse throughout her childhood. When Angela was just four years old, her mother had been stabbed to death. Afterwards she and her two brothers were sent to live with their abusive father, who withheld food and beat them.

Speaker 1: 11:06

After high school, angela abused drugs while living a transient life traveling around with a carnival worker. Then, in the early 1990s, angela met Anthony and they had three children together. Anthony spent most of the decade in and out of prison due to drug offense and said that California state officials had removed their children from their home. Their two sons, who by this point were 17 and 18 years old, had grown up in a foster home. After they wrote a letter to the family court judge overseeing their case pleading not to be sent back to their mother. Jeanette spent five and a half years in foster care before officials granted Angela custody of Jeanette. By that time, angela had another daughter and once she gained custody of Jeanette, they moved from Sacramento Valley to Eugene. Richard had been introduced to Angela through his cousin, mary Freeman, who had met her 13 years ago in a Catholic-run maternity home for unwed mothers in California. According to Mary, angela had always had a short fuse when it came to Jeanette. Even when Jeanette was a young girl, angela would pull her hair, slap her and stuff hot peppers in her mouth. Then, in 2-2, richard and Angela were married.

Speaker 1: 12:14

Jeanette was enrolled in Cascade Middle School in the middle of her 6th grade year. Her classmates would recollect that she was sent in wearing tattered sweatpants and an old yellowing t-shirt, and a number of pupils made fun of her. While Jeanette was often teased about her clothing and her appearance, she truly loved school, in particular reading books and poetry. However, there were signs of trouble. Jeanette was constantly hungry, and when it came time to go home, jeanette would become withdrawn and anxious. In mid-December, both Angela and Richard were formally indicted on charges of first-degree murder. Lawyers entered not guilty pleas on behalf of both of them.

Speaker 1: 12:52

Dhs officials still hadn't publicly responded to the allegations, but that was because they had convened a critical incident response team review to examine how the agency had handled the case. Jeanette's death followed five years of critical incident reviews into child deaths and serious injuries of children who had contact with DHS. Since 24, 21 reports had identified a number of problems, including a failure to investigate and follow up on cases, inadequate documentation and lack of ongoing assessment. Towards the end of January, a state report was released which concluded that DHS workers had repeatedly failed to help Jeanette. According to the report, the case was not adequately investigated or referred for assessment, despite the fact that there were four separate calls alleging abuse and neglect over four years. The report noted that the family was a high-risk family with a past history with a child welfare agency that included physical abuse and neglect. The agency had records of two abuse complaints in 26, one in 27, and another in 29. The first report from 26 came when a state child abuse call taker received a report of mental injury and neglect involving Jeanette. Investigators looked into the allegation but couldn't determine whether Jeanette was in danger. The report deemed this investigation was inadequate. Department policy requires that an investigator respond to such allegations within 24 hours. Instead, however, the call was classified as low priority. Furthermore, the investigator on the case should have interviewed witnesses about the abuse allegation before closing the case. Then, in 27 and 2009, dhs failed to refer the abuse allegations to Child Protection Services. Each of these reports were designated closed as screening, which meant that they weren't investigated at all. Aaron Kelly-Seale, the director of the department's children, adults and families division, said that the case was tragic but rare and was not representative of the system. Following the grim revelation, dhs announced they would be paying greater attention to child abuse reports involving older children and isolated youths. They also announced that they would require workers to make several visits to the home of a reported abuse victim within a 30-day period. As that child is being raised outside of traditional community supports, which Jeanette was considering, she was isolated and homeschooled.

Speaker 1: 15:15

In early August, it was announced that prosecutors would not be seeking the death penalty for Richard. However, capital punishment was still on the table for Angela, who would be facing trial first. Then, in February of 2011, angela pleaded guilty to aggravated murder. She additionally pleaded guilty to destroying or altering physical evidence in the case. It was now up to a Lane County jury to decide whether she should face the death penalty life in prison without parole or life in prison with a possibility of parole after 30 years. Her guilty plea was not part of any plea bargain. According to her defense attorney, stephen Krasick, he had attempted to reach a deal sparing Angela her life, but the Lane County District Attorney's Office was unsparing in its refusal to consider such an agreement. Under Oregon law, the death penalty requires a unanimous decision by the jury.

Speaker 1: 16:07

After a week of painstaking jury selection, it was time for the defense and prosecution to present evidence to the panel of jury members. The prosecution detailed how Angela went to great lengths to conceal her systematic starvation and abuse of Jeanette, according to District Attorney Eric Hasselman. Starvation and abuse of Jeanette. According to District Attorney Eric Hasselman, angela pulled Jeanette out of school after school officials suspected that Jeanette was being abused. Furthermore, angela had lied to put off a state caseworker who had come out to investigate.

Speaker 1: 16:35

Richard was called to testify during the sentencing hearing. He told the jury that he didn't know that his wife was beating and starving Jeanette until a few months before her death. Richard admitted that he had a part to his wife was beating and starving Jeanette until a few months before her death. Richard admitted that he had a part to play in Jeanette's death because he failed to stop the abuse or seek help for Jeanette. I did nothing. I failed as a father, he acknowledged. According to Richard, when Angela discovered that Jeanette was dead, she first of all suggested burying her in the backyard or in the coast range. He persuaded her to call his mother, lynn, for advice. It was Richard who eventually called 911 and afterwards he claimed that Angela wanted to flee, stating I did something bad and they're going to put me away for a very long time.

Speaker 1: 17:17

Richard took the jury through the final attack on Jeanette. He described how, the night before Jeanette's death, angela came to him upset, saying that she'd gone too far by hitting Jeanette's head with a stick. The following morning, jeanette was cold to the touch and was speaking incoherently as if she had taffy in her mouth. Instead of calling 911, angela enlisted her younger daughter to help clean up the blood before heading out to McDonald's. At around 7 pm, angela informed Richard that Jeanette was ice cold and wouldn't wake up.

Speaker 1: 17:49

Once all testimony had been heard, angela had the opportunity to address the jury. She acknowledged that she had abused Jeanette but added I did not want my little girl to die. In closing arguments, district Attorney Hasselman reminded jurors that they had all pledged during jury selection that they would not hesitate to impose the death penalty simply because Angela is a woman. If Jeanette Maples had been snatched by someone else and held captive in their home, if the atrocities that she experienced, both psychologically and physically, had been inflicted by a stranger, would any of us have a serious question if death would be the appropriate sentence? Is it somehow mitigating that her killer was her mother? In fact, he said it aggravated the crime by taking away from Jeanette that glimmer of hope that she would be rescued by her parents.

Speaker 1: 18:35

Now it was time for the Lane County Circuit Court jurors to begin deliberating on whether to sentence Angela to death or to life in prison. After six hours of deliberation, the jury decided that Angela should be sentenced to death for torturing and killing Jeanette. She was the first woman in Oregon to receive a death sentence since capital punishment was restored in 1984. As the sentence was read out, angela appeared stoic, but several jurors wept. Then, in early April, richard pleaded guilty to murder by abuse for failing to protect Jeanette. He was sentenced to Oregon's mandatory sentence for murder by abuse Life in prison, with no chance to even seek parole until 25 years. His defense attorney cited his low IQ, his inexperience making decisions for himself and severe health problems as explanations for why he did not prevent Jeanette's death.

Speaker 1: 19:27

Following the verdict, portland lawyer David Paul filed a wrongful death and personal injury suit against the Oregon Department of Human Services for $1.5 million in damages on behalf of Jeanette's estate and damages on behalf of Jeanette's estate. The suit alleged that state officials could have prevented her death had caseworkers exercised reasonable care in responding to reports that Jeanette was being abused. The suit was filed on behalf of Anthony, jeanette's father, who had not seen his daughter in almost a decade. He was seeking damages for loss of his daughter's society, love and companionship. Much of the community found this quite inappropriate and thought that if anybody should receive compensation for suffering, it was Jeanette's siblings, or Lynn, who had reported the abuse. As a matter of fact, anthony hadn't even bothered to come to his daughter memorial service. In March of 2012, the state of Oregon agreed to pay $1.5 million to Anthony. $500,000 of that went to his attorney and attorney's fees, while Anthony received the rest. Many had hoped that Anthony would consider establishing a trust fund to meet the future needs to Jeanette's siblings who were in foster care. Another hope was that he would give it to the Jeanette Maples Project in Lane County that were working to promote awareness of child abuse. Anthony kept the money for himself.

Speaker 1: 20:44

In July of 2019, it was announced that Senior Circuit Court Jude Burdett Pratt announced that he would be throwing out Angela's murder conviction because her attorneys failed to adequately represent or advise her during her trial. Defense attorneys Stephen Krasick and Kenneth Hadley made the highly unusual move of encouraging Angela to plead guilty. When the prosecution had not agreed to drop the death penalty as a possible punishment, the judge ruled that Angela should have a new trial. Then, in August 2020, a settlement was made which ruled Angela should serve life in prison without parole. Thank you for joining me once again. This case was a tough one to do. It is hard to believe a mother could treat her child this way. Jeanette never had even a chance of a good life. All I can say is some people just fucking suck. Till next time, take care of yourselves. Thank you.