Sometimes we hear stories that are truly heartbreaking. It’s especially difficult when children are involved. Unfortunately, this is one of those stories, but it ends up turning out okay, thanks to two teens who made it happen.
Jordan was an average 5-year-old little boy. His dad, Brad married a woman who had children of her own. They became an instant family. Jordan’s dad and stepmother, Tammi started to treat him in a very inappropriate way. They verbally and physically abused him. It was told he was even starved and occasionally tazed. The parents even put him in a small closet.
This closet was the scene of something terrible. Little Jordan not only was forced to go in the closet but into an even smaller cabinet type of storage cell. It was small and they locked him in. There were wires and screws, etc poking out that would hurt or scratch Jordan.
Jordan’s older half-brother and sister didn’t like what was happening and made several attempts to help their little brother. Cody was 16 and Alison was 14.
“The police had been to our house multiple times,” explained Cody, in an interview. “All the police officers told me there was nothing they could do about it.”
“The teachers were unsure what to do — nobody could help me at that point.”
“I remember police officers were actually at our front door and I asked them to come in and see what was happening and they said they couldn’t because I was underage and I didn’t own the house. They were literally at our door and I was asking for help and they couldn’t do anything.”
Cody and Allison fought with their parents to help Jordan but were abused in return.
Cody decided to break into the closet one day to check on his brother and try to help him.
“The day I opened up that closet, Jordan was in the worst shape I had ever seen him in,” he said. “I had been in a huge fight with Brad so I was already in trouble and both adults were outside of the house so I just saw an opportunity and I opened up the closet to let Jordan out.”
“But what I found was truly shocking — he was in his diaper, he didn’t have any clothes on. His face was all caved in, bruises all over, marks on him. His mouth was foaming. I have never in my life seen anything as bad as that.”
“I kind of paused for a second and then I just freaked out. If we hadn’t got him out that day I don’t think he would have survived.”
“I picked Jordan up and gave him to my sister Allison so she could care for him and comfort him and I went outside and just called my mom and Brad out on it. They both flipped out that I had opened the closet door — they said I had no business going in there, that it wasn’t anything to do with me.”
“At that point, things escalated between me and Brad and we started shoving each other and I was just trying to draw as much attention as I could. I knew at this point there was no turning back. My mom had confiscated my phone but I had a prepaid phone so I called the police but in the meantime, my mom was packing all the kids up and getting everyone out.”
“I remember him falling and I picked him up and him just being in my arms was terrible,” Allison, who had been 14 at the time, added. “It was like I wasn’t holding anything — he was so light — it wasn’t like holding a kid at all.”
“He was so, so white and his cheeks were sunken and he smelled terrible — it was just awful. I hadn’t seen him for about a week before this and he was scared, he didn’t know what was happening.”
It’s been 4 years and since then both Tami and Brad have been sentenced to several years in jail. The other siblings went to foster care.
Jordan is now a healthy 9-year-old boy living with his mother and doing very well.
Thank goodness for Allison and Jordan for standing up for what was right.
