Couple taken into custody for abusing adopted children

WASILLA -- A husband and wife accused of running a veritable torture camp for their five adopted children in Wasilla were arrested Monday afternoon for kidnapping and multiple counts of felony assault, according to an Alaska State Trooper affidavit filed in Palmer District Court.

An investigation by troopers revealed that Patrick Kelley, 43, and his wife, Sherry Kelley, 35, were formerly licensed foster parents and all the children were placed in their home by the state. The Kelleys ultimately adopted three girls, ages 6, 14, and 15, and two boys, ages 10 and 13, according to the affidavit filed by investigator Leonard Wallner.

But police say the Kelleys' care for the five children -- three of whom are biological siblings -- included severe abuse and many bizarre, cruel punishments, most of which were inflicted on the two boys.

According to the affidavit, the children lived in vans with no heat, water or electricity. The Kelleys reportedly beat them with shovels, metal pipes and other tools; deprived them of food and sleep for days on end; kept them out of school for at least the last three years and often locked several of the children in an empty room for long periods. On one occasion, one of the boys was confined, naked, inside a coffin-like wooden box. The two boys told troopers that two years ago, they were forced to wear onion sack thongs as a form of punishment.

Further investigation revealed the Kelleys were receiving a monthly payment of $3,400 to care for the children, the first of whom they adopted as an infant in 1998. The other children filtered into the Kelley's home between 1999 and 2000 as foster children from abusive biological families, Wallner said.

The Kelleys' alleged abuse of the children was discovered when state troopers responded to a call from Sherry's father, George Long, on July 8. Long, 65, lives with his wife, Shirley, in a lot adjacent to the Kelleys', at Mile .8 Misty Lake Road near Wasilla. He called state troopers because of a verbal argument between Sherry and her 15-year-old daughter.

When troopers arrived, he told them the children were living in "junk vans," had not showered in "God only knows how long," had not been in school since 2001 and were confined to the premises. Long later told troopers that Sherry had an anger problem and that the situation was getting worse and worse. If he hadn't called the troopers, he said, one of the boys might have died.

Before troopers arrived at the Kelley compound on July 8, Sherry left with her 10-year-old son because he had been badly burned in February and had not been taken to the hospital.

The boy still had open sores that had not healed and were still infected, troopers said. Sherry reportedly forced the boy into her van before troopers arrived by hitting him repeatedly with a steel bar. The blows broke his arm, it was later determined.

Interviews with the other children revealed that the boy's burns had gone untreated through the winter and, as a result of sleeping outside this spring, his wounds became infected and maggots hatched in the open sores. Patrick Kelley simply told the boy to wash the maggots off, according to the affidavit.

The next month, the boy suffered from a frostbitten finger while carrying firewood, but Sherry reportedly refused to take him to a doctor. The boy told troopers that after his finger turned black and the nail fell off, his sisters scrubbed the dead flesh to the bone but Sherry still wouldn't take him to the doctor.

The boy has since been treated at Valley Hospital, having undergone skin graft surgery and partial amputation of the frostbitten finger this summer.

The children also told investigators that last fall, the eldest boy passed out after he was repeatedly thrown into a pond after getting caught trying to steal food from his grandparents. The next day the boy was chained to a tree and not given any food for five days. Both Long and the children told troopers the boy was chained to a brick for extended periods of time thereafter.

Troopers confirmed these reports with a 14-year-old cousin who said he saw one of the boys chained up at the Kelley residence on at least one occasion, and was encouraged to demean the boy. The cousin told his mother he had seen the boy placed and sealed inside a wooden box, the affidavit stated.

In subsequent interviews troopers learned that Patrick and Sherry Kelley often hit the children in the face with shovels or beat them with willow switches. One of the girls told troopers Sherry slapped her face so hard she thought her nose was broken. Troopers saw multiple scars and bruises on some of the children that were consistent with their accounts.

Troopers removed the three older children from the Kelley compound after the initial call on July 8, and sent them to stay with a maternal relative. The next day troopers returned to the residence and found Sherry Kelley with the two youngest children.

She was taken into custody and delivered to Alaska Psychiatric Institute in Anchorage. The two children were also sent to the maternal relative's house.

Marcie Kennai, state deputy commissioner for the Office of Children's Services, said she cannot comment on specific cases, but did say post-adoption services are voluntary once foster parents go through the screening and training process and an adoption is finalized by a judge.

The state does not check up on adopted children unless the parents request it, Kennai said. The only time the state would get involved is if there were a report of abuse. Otherwise, the state regards adoptive parents as having the same privacy rights as biological parents.

Wallner said he believed there was a serious problem when he initially saw

the children.

"You could see it in their demeanor and their behavior," Wallner said. "It was really more akin to dealing with inmates in a concentration camp."

Wallner said the Kelleys' compound off Misty Lake Road was divided into two levels adjoined by a path. The upper level had a trailer but the lower level had no habitable structures of any kind.

Long told Wallner he brought the vans for the children to sleep in because he was afraid he might accidentally run over one of them while working with equipment outside, since the children just slept anywhere they could.

"There was an obvious lack of food and sleeping arrangements at the Kelleys' compound," Wallner said. "It was almost feral."

A friend of the maternal relatives with whom the children are staying said they are all doing very well now. The children are together, enrolled in school and living stable, normal lives.

"I saw the kids the other day and they're doing much better, they're healthier and in much better spirits," Wallner said. "This is turning out to be a happy ending for the kids. You might say it's the end of a long nightmare for them."

Contact John Davidson at john.davidson@frontiersman.

com.