A Michigan woman was sentenced after vomiting in court after discovering her disabled son’s body under a tarp in a closet

Timothy Ferguson, 15, was discovered dead in July 2022. He weighed 69 pounds.

A lady from Michigan was given a life sentence for starving her disabled 15-year-old son to death and forcing him to sleep in a closed cupboard that was frequently zip-tied to restrict his movement.

On January 23, a judge in Michigan imposed the mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole for Shanda Vander Ark’s first-degree murder of Timothy Ferguson.

Judge Matthew Kacel remarked during the sentencing, “I’ve been trying now for this entire case to wrap my mind around how somebody could do something so horrific, not only to another human being but to their own child.” “You subjected this youngster to systematic and deliberate torment. Let’s put it bluntly: this is torture. This youngster was tortured by you.

In addition, Vander Ark received a sentence of 50 to 100 years in jail for first-degree child abuse, with 575 days of credit toward his term.

Because of the “absolute, systematic, consistent torture that you engaged in here,” Kacel stated that his sentence went above what was prescribed for child abuse.

In December, Vander Ark was found guilty of first-degree child abuse and murder.

Ferguson was discovered dead by police in July 2022. According to the Associated Press, he was malnourished, weighed just 69 pounds, and had hypothermic symptoms throughout his body. It was determined that he was killed.

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The day before he passed away, Vander Ark allegedly gave her son an ice bath, poured hot sauce down his neck, refused to give him food, and only fed him bread dipped in hot sauce.

Even though the boy was extremely emaciated, locks were put on the pantry and refrigerator to prevent him from smuggling food in, according to ABC News station WZZM 13.

Witnesses further stated that Ferguson frequently spent over nine hours at a period submerged in ice baths and that he slept in a small closet in the basement with no furnishings or blankets—just a tarp.

One of Ferguson’s brothers, Paul Ferguson, was also accused in this case with first-degree child abuse. He entered a guilty plea in December 2023, and a late February sentencing is anticipated.