It was just before Thanksgiving of 2015, when police were brought to the Kansas City home of Heather and Michael Jones. Concerned neighbors had called the police when they heard the couple fighting, followed by a gunshot. Neighbors were able to tell police that eight children had been living in the home at ages ranging from 1 to 11.
Police arrived to find the home in squalled conditions. The exterior property had been littered with toys and junk. Inside the children were found living in filth. Dried food had been encrusted to the floors and the walls between bullet holes and children’s toys were strewn amid trash. Police requested to speak with the children, after also getting word that one of the couple’s children, 7-year-old Adrian, had not been spotted by neighbors in several months. No one in the home seemed to have noticed little Adrian was missing.
Several months prior to the domestic disturbance call that brought police to the couple’s home, reports say that Heather Jones, Adrian’s stepmother, had purchased pigs to stock in their barn. On Thanksgiving day, as many other people were sitting around the table with their family and friends, investigators obtained a warrant and returned to the scene. Inside the barn were human remains, later identified as Adrian’s. He had been fed to pigs.
In December of 2015, Both Michael and Heather Jones were charged for Adrian’s death.
The Kansas City Star was able to speak to Chief Deputy District Attorney Sheryl Lidtke. Lidtke told reporters that Adrian had been suffering horrible abuse and neglect. He was regularly beaten and starved, until one night Michael Jones beat the boy to death. Heather Jones went to get pigs for the barn sometime in October of 2015.
Heather Jones said she had been caught up in an abusive relationship and had no one to turn to. She had no choice but to endure the abuse of herself and the children. She claims she continues to have nightmares to this day on the horrors she had to live through with her husband Michael Jones and will have to live with Adrian’s death with the rest of her life.
Heather Jones has since been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to the murder. Michael Jones is still awaiting trial.