Grandmother Of Homeschooled Teen Who Starved Pleads Guilty

ADEL, IA — The grandmother of a 16-year-old girl who was starved to death and weighed only 56 pounds when her body was discovered nearly a year ago was sentenced Friday to up to 20 years in prison, the maximum allowed by law. Carla Bousman, 63, confessed in a plea hearing that she didn’t seek medical help when she found the teen in distress in her Perry, Iowa, home.

Instead, Bousman locked Sabrina Ray and two of her adoptive sisters in the room, where the teen died of starvation. Bousman pleaded guilty in Dallas County District Court to neglect of a dependent person, accessory after the fact, obstruction of prosecution, two counts of false imprisonment and two counts of child endangerment. She could have faced multiple life sentences if she had been convicted by a jury.

Bousman was in charge of caring for Sabrina on the day she died, according to reports. Four other members of Sabrina’s family also have been charged in her death.

Sabrina’s death by starvation has been spotlighted by advocates seeking reform of home education laws that allow parents to teach their children at home with no oversight whatsoever. Sabrina and another Iowa teenager, Natalie Finn, 16, of West Des Moines, were both starved to death by their parents in separate Iowa cases about eight months apart.

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On May 12, 2017, the day Sabrina died, she “woke up vomiting and had soiled herself and her clothes and I just thought she wasn’t feeling well and I gave her a shower and cleaned her all up,” Bousman told the court, the Des Moines Register reported.

“I wish I could go back to that day and change everything and do what I know was the proper thing to do,” Bousman said. “I can’t change what was done now, but I’m very sorry and miss all my grandchildren very much.”

District Judge Terry Rickers, who accepted the plea, said that after hearing Bousman’s testimony, “there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the maximum sentence in this case is the only appropriate sentence,” the Dallas County News reported.

“Grandmothers are supposed to be special to their grandkids. Grandmas are supposed to spoil their grandkids,” Rickers said. “Grandmas aren’t supposed to contribute to the confinement and degradation of their grandchildren.”

He said Bousman’s contact with her grandchildren “was nothing but a nightmare for them.”

In February, Sabrina’s adult brother, Justin Ray, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to willful injury. Prosecutors said he “drop-kicked” his sister down the basement staircase. Investigators said she lay for days on the basement floor in excruciating pain.

Marc Alan and Misty Jo Bousman-Ray, Sabrina’s adoptive parents, have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, kidnapping and child endangerment. Their trial has not been scheduled.

Sabrina’s 21-year-old cousin, Josie Raye Bousman, is charged with three counts of kidnapping, child endangerment causing death and obstructing prosecution. According to a criminal complaint, she helped confine Sabrina and denied her food and water. She is cooperating with authorities in the prosecution of other family members.

During her brief, tortured life, Sabrina had often been so hungry that she ate what she could find rummaging through garbage cans. Her adoptive parents had previous involvement with child protection workers, but Sabrina was removed from school, where her parents would have faced close monitoring.

Sabrina is among at least 116 children who died from 2000 to last year after their parents pulled them out of public school school settings, according to the Homeschooling’s Invisible Children database kept by the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, a national nonprofit run by homeschool alumni that advocates for more oversight of homeschooling parents.

Under the Iowa homeschool law, parents may choose to have their kids taught by a certified instructor, but they don't have to. They don't have to notify anyone of their intent to teach kids at home. The law say kids must receive instruction in math, science, reading and language arts, and social studies, but there are no notification, parent qualification, instruction time, bookkeeping or assessment requirements.

SEE ALSO
Hidden Torture: How Homeschool Laws Can Shield Abusive Parents
Powerful Lobby Opposes Homeschool Reform Efforts

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