Malinda Hoagland passed away weighing 50 pounds with six fractured bones, several lacerations, bruises, and liver damage hours after her father phoned 911 reporting a tree knocked her unconscious. Her brother did not suffer such symptoms.
Rendell Hoagland, 52, and his girlfriend Cindy Warren, 45, are in Chester County Prison outside Philadelphia, where District Attorney Christopher de Barrena-Sarobe stated Thursday he would pursue the loss sentence.
After Rendell’s daughter’s loss, the couple was arrested in May on attempted murder charges and given $1 million bail.
Per WGAL, the charges were elevated to first-, second-, and third-degree murder and involuntary servitude. Kidnapping, assault, and attempted murder are other accusations. They’re being held without bail.
Just a few hours after her father contacted 911 to report that his daughter had been knocked unconscious after hitting a tree while riding her bike, Malinda Hoagland, who was 12 years old at the time of her loss, passed just a few hours later. It turned out that the reality was considerably more horrifying, which ultimately led to the arrest of both him and his girlfriend.
A few hours after receiving the phone call, Malinda passed away. Her loss was revealed to have been caused by malnutrition as well as severe blunt force injuries, according to the autopsy. The study states that she had damage to her liver in addition to having six fractured bones, roughly seventy-five bruises, contusions, ulcers, and pressure sores, and about seventy-five other injuries at the time of her passing.
“Her injuries were nothing short of incomprehensible. Barrena-Sarobe, who made the statement, characterized the alleged abuse as “ongoing” and “systematic.” “And then, as we investigated, a preliminary number of cellphone videos clearly showed that Malinda was terrorized by the defendants,” she added.
The footage that was discovered by the investigators was taken from the defendants’ smartphones as well as from security cameras located within the residence. The investigators claim that the video demonstrates a regular pattern of abuses that dates back many months. One of the allegations is that Malinda was chained to furniture, even when she was attending online education.
Barrena-Sarobe claims that Warren’s son, who is nine years old, also resided at the house; however, it does not seem that he was exposed to the same abuses as Malinda was. at fact, it appears that he is totally healthy and has not been affected in any way.
According to the alleged text messages that were sent between the pair, Malinda was subjected to a variety of punishments, including neglecting her duties and schoolwork, “stealing” food, and even failing to smile when she was attending her Zoom sessions. According to Crime Online, the investigators indicate that a pantry in the house was padlocked to prevent her from accessing food, and as a kind of punishment, she was made to do calisthenics for a period of several hours.
During the course of their investigation, the police discovered that Malinda had been removed from the public school system and switched to attending an online school. “She was virtually showing up on camera based on some of the videos that we reviewed, but she was shackled below from where the camera was,” said to the deputy attorney general, according to WCAU.
A statement made by the district attorney said that the pair had exposed her to “evil and torment that no child should ever have to endure, and they did it for months.”
The superintendent of the public school that Malinda attended when her parents removed her from the school in December 2023, Dr. Catherine Van Vooren, said to WCAU that the “staff diligently reported concerns about her welfare to the state agency that receives and manages concerns.”
Shortly after that, Malinda was removed from the school that she had been attending. “This news shakes our entire school community, and we are deeply saddened and upset by the horrific details of the abuse this child suffered,” Van Vooren concluded his statement.
The Washington County Associated Press (WCAU) stated that Warren had previously been convicted in a child abuse case that had occurred in 2007. The authorities said that she had lied about her then-husband McKinley Warren Jr. beating their son, who was three years old, as well as her stepdaughter, who was two years old. She also refused to admit that he was the one who was responsible for the murder of his daughter.
She was found guilty of putting the well-being of a child in jeopardy in 2009 and received a sentence ranging from three to seven years in prison.