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00:00Is it going?
00:01Hey everybody, I just figured I'd send a quick check.
00:05This is Paul Ferguson.
00:08Tragically, his brother Timothy passed away just prior to this live stream.
00:12For those of you who aren't aware, my little brother has passed away and it's a lot to deal with, but we're fine.
00:24With such devastating news, viewers quickly showed him support during this terrible time.
00:30But unbeknownst to Paul's fans, this would be his last live stream ever.
00:36Because as it turns out, Paul himself was behind the death of his younger brother.
00:49911, what's your emergency?
00:52911, it's okay. It's better work.
00:54Yeah, and my phone's not pointing.
00:59On the 6th of July 2022 at 6.37pm, police were called to assist with a medical emergency just outside of Grand Rapids in Michigan.
01:18The caller, Shonda van der Ark, mother of Paul and Timothy, had told paramedics that Timothy wasn't breathing.
01:25Just seven minutes after arriving on the scene, Timothy was pronounced dead.
01:30Officers had never seen anything like it.
01:32Timothy was malnourished, bruised, and hypothermic.
01:35There were bones protruding from his skin.
01:38And despite being 5'8", he weighed just 69 pounds.
01:43Most concerning was where they actually found Timothy.
01:47He was lying in a small closet that reeked of urine and feces.
01:51Inside was a blue tarp and an Amazon box.
01:54And just outside were a pair of ankle shackles.
01:58There were also multiple cameras around the room and an alarm on the door he was found in.
02:03Undoubtedly, something was incredibly wrong.
02:06But police hadn't even scratched the surface of just how horrible this case would turn out to be.
02:12So, to maybe shed a little light on what just happened here,
02:16Officer Sean Stefanich decides to talk to his seemingly grieving mother, Shonda.
02:21Hello, ma'am.
02:23I'm Officer Stefanich.
02:25Right now we got some people coming over to talk to you, okay?
02:29He's been wearing really loose clothes the last couple weeks.
02:33He's really skinny.
02:34He's really skinny and I didn't notice until this morning because he wouldn't, like,
02:37I asked him if he's okay and he would not answer me.
02:39Like, he's 15, he's been...
02:41He has autism?
02:43Yeah.
02:44Like, a high functioning?
02:45Yeah.
02:46I had no clue how bad he was.
02:49Oh my God.
02:50He did this back in...
02:53Oh, my husband's stroke was January 3rd.
02:55Mm-hmm.
02:56I saw he did this back in, I don't know, second week of January for almost three weeks.
03:00And then he finally ate, um...
03:03He ate something last night.
03:05I can't remember what it was now.
03:07I'm sorry.
03:08It's okay.
03:08This is where police realize that Shanda's emotions might all be an act.
03:14And as they would uncover more evidence in the house and talk to her son, Paul, these claims
03:20would slowly fall apart.
03:22So as the officer listens to her side of the story, he'll be looking for anything to latch
03:26onto that they can use against them later to determine the truth.
03:30I did it.
03:31I had no idea.
03:33I would have taken a man or something.
03:34Like, you said the last time you saw him was 5.30 this morning?
03:38Did he say anything?
03:39He had fallen out of bed.
03:41At 5.30?
03:42Yeah.
03:42You sure it wasn't earlier?
03:45I mean, it's possible.
03:46I thought it was 5.30, but I wasn't super awake.
03:49I heard a thump.
03:50And I came down and he's kind of laying on his side, kind of like, what the heck?
03:54Timothy was pronounced dead at 6.44 a.m. that morning, just an hour after Shanda claimed
04:07she last talked to him.
04:09The reason the officer seems suspicious is because the first responders noticed that rigor
04:13mortis had already started setting in, tightening his facial muscles.
04:17This usually starts anywhere from two to four hours after death, not the barely one hour
04:23that Shanda is claiming here.
04:25But the real question is how Shanda never noticed just how skinny and emaciated Timothy really
04:31was.
04:31This sort of malnourishment doesn't just happen overnight, so the officer asks her to explain
04:36herself.
04:37I asked him to eat last night because his face started looking a little thin.
04:40I'm like, okay, then.
04:41And he wouldn't show up.
04:42I'm like, let me see.
04:43Hold your shirt up.
04:43And he wouldn't hold his shirt up.
04:45He wouldn't do anything.
04:46Did he get real skinny last time, too?
04:48Yes.
04:49The only reason I know is because my 7-year-old walked in on him accidentally when he was in
04:52the shower downstairs.
04:53Uh-huh.
04:53And then my 7-year-old comes up and he's like, Mama, Timothy's really skinny.
04:56I was like, ah.
04:57Was that this time or last time?
04:58That was last time.
04:59And I told him he was either going to start eating multiple times a day or I was taking him to
05:03the hospital and he didn't want to go to the hospital, so.
05:05So he ended up eating on his own.
05:07Yes.
05:08And then, so this last time, was it because your husband wasn't home?
05:12He hasn't been home since January 3rd.
05:14He actually mentioned he was hungry the day his dad and stepmom called to tell us they
05:19were divorced and moving to Florida last week.
05:21Shonda is essentially saying that Timothy wasn't eating because of a, quote, hunger strike,
05:26campaigning against family problems.
05:28Back in January, Adam Van Der Ark, Shonda's husband, had a stroke and had to move out due to
05:34issues accessing their home.
05:36Apparently, this caused Timothy to stop eating for three weeks and he only started again after
05:41threats of being taken to the hospital.
05:43But for the last two weeks, he'd stopped eating again, allegedly this time due to his biological
05:48father divorcing his wife and moving away to Florida.
05:52Each of these events did indeed happen, but as it would turn out, they had nothing to do
05:57with Timothy's hunger at all.
05:59I tried to check in the last few days and he just wouldn't let me anywhere near him.
06:03He didn't want a kiss, a hug, nothing.
06:05What was the last time he ate, you think?
06:07Last night.
06:09Um, he ate.
06:12Oh my God.
06:13It's just a bit of heat.
06:16I don't know.
06:17I feel like such a failure.
06:19You see there's food in the house.
06:21I thought it was something.
06:23It may really hide that for me like that.
06:25It would turn out Timothy wasn't hiding anything from her, but police had to get to the bottom
06:31of what exactly she knew.
06:33So after this initial questioning phase ended, police handed over the case to detectives
06:37who obtained a search warrant and began to collect evidence throughout the house.
06:42That's when they found leg shackles in a drawer, four webcams scattered strategically placed
06:47around a basement, zip ties in the bathroom, a half-empty bottle of extreme regret Carolina
06:53and reaper hot sauce, and locks on every single fridge, freezer, and pantry in the house.
06:59This painted a picture of a helpless boy, forced to live inhumanely among his own dirt
07:05and filth, watched every second of the day, and brutally twirled until the very end.
07:11The next day, an autopsy was conducted on Timothy's body, finding even more strange and worrying
07:17things. He had extremely sunken eyes, slightly blue-tinted skin, and there were many signs
07:23of dehydration as well. His cause of death was determined to be dehydration and extreme
07:28emaciation due to starvation, with hypothermia playing a role too. With all of this information
07:34and evidence gathered, the police knew something foul had to be at play. They just weren't sure what.
07:39Starvation in a house filled with food, hypothermia in the middle of an American summer, alongside
07:46hot sauce and handcuffs. It had to all come together somehow. So the day after Timothy's
07:52death at 3.57pm, they bring in Paul, Shonda's 20-year-old son, for interrogation, to try and
07:59uncover what all this could possibly mean, and how exactly he was involved. What Paul doesn't
08:05know is that they've already collected a mountain of evidence. Detective Ryan Peask is going to
08:10use a five-step program to slowly extract the truth from Paul, starting by getting on his
08:15good side, and ending by tearing into him, and making him feel so guilty, he'll have no
08:21choice, but to confess to everything.
08:24I don't want to talk anything specifically about the case just yet. I was going to do
08:28since the police show at your house, and they brought me down here. I want to invite you
08:32some lights before we talk about that sort of thing. What I do want you to know, though,
08:36is that you went to your phones, okay? There's a lot of evidence in the phones, and I know
08:40that you're kind of aware of the communication between yourself and your mother, and those sort
08:43of things, and that's kind of what I want to talk to you about.
08:45As mentioned, police have spent the last 24 hours combing over text messages, camera
08:55recordings, crime scene images, and much more to try and get a good picture of what
09:00had happened. So, as the case is with many younger suspects, Detective Peask will start
09:05calmly, trying to put Paul at ease and get on his good side, before slowly breaking him
09:10down and exposing the truth.
09:12I know that we talked yesterday. I know that not everything that we talked about was
09:16the truth yesterday. That's okay. You don't have to feel bad. You don't have to feel
09:21guilty about not telling the truth to me. I'm trying to get to the truth that won't
09:24really happen, brother, because he deserves that. I mean, there's clearly a lot of messages
09:28about sex that he has to do and all the things about, what he's eating, about restricting
09:32his food. How did that all work?
09:35We stuck different restrictions recently because we had notices then. We wanted to get that
09:40back on. We didn't want any of this. We never wanted him to be injured or hugged. I loved
09:46him so much.
09:47Yeah, I can tell that.
09:48I just certainly tell that.
09:50And we wanted what's best.
09:51Yeah.
09:52The thing is, he was stuck in the past.
09:54So, when you stopped the food restriction, when did that kind of happen?
09:57Two weeks. Approximately, we were hoping that we could get enough where he would be safe
10:03and that we could continue to add it back to where we wouldn't have to worry and we could...
10:07What were the restrictions?
10:10We made sure that it was still something that gave him enough calories and everything.
10:15It was rice or bread and, like I said last week, he got pizza.
10:21Throughout the thousands of texts detectives have between Paul and Shonda, there's a huge
10:26amount of talk about food restrictions. It doesn't take much to realize that this was
10:30why Timothy was thin as he was. Peace will focus more on this later.
10:35What's more interesting, though, is how Paul justified this.
10:38We loved him. We wanted him to pass.
10:40We made sure that it was still something that gave him enough calories and everything.
10:45These aren't Paul's own thoughts. This is just what he's been told by his mother since the
10:50abuse started. Over the course of several months, he's internalized it and now seems to fully
10:56believe that what he's been doing to Timothy is for his own good.
10:59What were the things for in the first place?
11:02He's making food over and over and over.
11:05We've tried everything. We were nice. We tried different consequences, but he just...
11:10I couldn't ever listen.
11:12What were some of the other types of texts about him?
11:14We did take away his devices. That was also because he wouldn't stay on a school site.
11:19He would just go and try and play games or watch YouTube.
11:22He should have been held back so much that he passed all his final exams.
11:27So, I don't think it was my stepmother. My stepmother was amazing.
11:32Yeah.
11:32But I believe it was my father's too.
11:34Okay.
11:35But my dad's control was freaking nervous.
11:38He didn't want or having any contact and screwing all his control up.
11:42Okay.
11:42Note how the only consequence that Paul mentions here is the fact that they take away his phone
11:48occasionally, something fairly innocuous. It's also worth mentioning just how quickly
11:53he tries to put Timothy and his father down in exactly the same way his mother was known
11:57to do. But as Paul continues talking, it becomes clear exactly how much of a problem this has
12:03actually become and that he might have actually been strongly manipulated by her to do all of this.
12:08That was the thing back in Oklahoma where I had to, I had probably just emotional release.
12:15I was so terrified of him that I didn't ever want to have released any of the negative emotions
12:20I ever had around him. It was, there were times where I wanted to say no, but I was so terrified
12:26that I just couldn't hear. I can release my anger and I do it in the right ways. I never do it
12:32any, in any way that I'm not supposed to. He had her tubes undone for Gabriel. He was a blessing
12:40to this world. Yeah. He's an optimum pet. Certainly. But he's a blessing. Of course. She loves him so much.
12:48Before having her third son Gabriel, Shonda had a procedure to restore her fertility. To her,
12:54having Gabriel was a miracle because she didn't know if this would work. That's likely why no evidence
13:00was ever found of her harming Gabriel because he was by far and away her favorite child. That does
13:06however provide a harrowing reason for why she might have abused Timothy so much. He was her problem
13:13child and she didn't like the fact he had so many mental health conditions. So she wanted to take her
13:18anger out on and deal with the problem directly.
13:22There were times when I would tell an attitude that was unnecessary and she would have me get off
13:34devices for maybe 15 minutes because usually that was what it was revolved around because
13:38I'll be honest, I have an addiction to my devices. Okay. I never had enough during much of that back
13:44time. Hold on. Yeah. My dad was strict. She didn't even give me a phone. My sister and my
13:50step-sister had phoned me before I did. So now you're in work. And I was like,
13:55yesterday I bought all the great bills. Yeah. And I'm like, my father, she doesn't force me to get
14:01her half of my paycheck. He doesn't force that on me. Yeah. And I was working basically minimum wage
14:07at both. And the thing is that my mother can't even face my father right now. She doesn't want
14:15to call him because the one thing that she and I both know is that he's going to hurl every ounce
14:21of blame he can't hurt. Listen to how he's talking about his father. He's only able to say negative
14:27things about him and brings these points up even while unprompted. He clearly has a strong dislike of
14:33his father and talks about him like a divorced partner. Take a guess where that stemmed from.
14:39It's clear his mother has been feeding him lies and negativity about his father. And there's no
14:44clearer example of this than what he says next. I moved here into Michigan. I think I'm serious.
14:51Okay. Because for the time after I had moved out of my parents' house, I speak with my uncle
14:56being down. And I think people both had actually been tricked by my father to also believe that my
15:02mother was bad. Nobody was tricked. Shonda simply was a bad person. The police report contains
15:08countless witness testimonies from family, friends, and teachers who knew something was wrong
15:13and believed Shonda to be a bad parent. This wasn't an uncommon opinion. One of Timothy's teachers
15:19even told the cops that all the teachers knew he wasn't cared for at home and that he lived through
15:25hell most of his life. But to save face, Shonda would make up lies to tell Paul that made her
15:31seem perfect and kept his respect, at the cost of making his father seem downright evil. That's what
15:37makes this case so controversial. Paul was almost certainly not in control for the majority of this,
15:43and he was definitely manipulated by his mother to some extent. But he still went through with
15:47everything, and that's what a jury would end up focusing on.
15:51I saw on your phone that you had sent a couple pictures to your mom.
15:55Yes.
15:56Pretty skinny, and you said, you know, hey, he's nothing but skinny.
15:59Yeah, I was very concerned. It was just...
16:02Yeah, what? Do you think that maybe would have been a good time to take a minute after, or...
16:06Yeah, honestly, that probably would have been one, too.
16:09I don't know.
16:11And then you sent a picture of, like, his legs that were just basically gone, right?
16:15Yeah, it was insane or something along the lines of it.
16:18Yeah. But the thing is, yesterday, and I think the day before, he could walk.
16:24Yeah.
16:24He might need a little support every so often, like he put his hand against the wall or grab
16:28the rail of the stairs. But after a couple of seconds, he let go. It'll be fine.
16:33Okay.
16:33It was never anything major.
16:36When was, like, the last time it was really, like, talking to you, like, able to have a conversation
16:40or who's trying to have a conversation?
16:41It must take an astonishing amount of delusion to believe that not being able to walk or speak
17:02isn't anything major. But in reality, that's not what they thought. They thought he was
17:08faking it entirely. In fact, on the day before Timothy died, Shonda told Paul to wave warm
17:14pizza rolls just in front of him and take them back if he tries to eat them. It all just
17:19seems as though they were messing with him to satisfy their own sadistic desires.
17:23What's the thing with the photograph in the back of the stairs, like someone did on the
17:28stairs?
17:29Uh, he'd been taking the bath.
17:31Oh.
17:32And I went in there to check on him at one point, and he just came away, and I'm like,
17:37bud, you okay? He didn't respond, but he was looking around, and so, and he was breathing,
17:41I know that much.
17:42Yeah.
17:42But he wasn't talking at that time.
17:44No, and it didn't, it started to concern me. I'm not sure if I texted my mom about it
17:50or not.
17:50Why don't you send a picture to her?
17:52Yeah, I probably should have said something about the ER at that point, though.
17:56Well, I'm sure you mean this is not stupid.
17:58You have to think about it like this, right? She sees the drone at all. I mean, she sees
18:03that it. That's not all on you, right?
18:05Right.
18:05You made, from what I see, you made millions of times to say, we need to do something different
18:10about this.
18:11Yeah.
18:11Wait, you can't keep doing this.
18:13I know she's a big person.
18:15Yes.
18:16Paul is beating himself up because he knows that he assisted in all of this, but notice how
18:21is still trying to reassure Paul and shift the blame away from him. Fortunately, this
18:27is about to pay off massively as he starts to talk more about the punishments that Timothy
18:31was put through.
18:32I think you have to think about this. Right now, we have a lot of time about blaming people,
18:36but it's the time to try to figure out when could we have changed things? What could we
18:39have done differently? How did we get to the point where we were at? Because, you know,
18:44clearly where you guys talked to, when you said you didn't do the bats, that wasn't a nice
18:48enjoyable bat, but right? That was a punishment bat. Right? That's a cold, ice cold bat.
18:53I didn't watch that. You did. How many times did you ask me, did you ask me cold bats as a
18:59punter? For whatever reason? I think it's for the punishments. I don't exactly know the
19:10number, but it wasn't a lot. Are we talking like five, ten, twenty, every day, every other
19:16day? Any ideas? Five. Whose idea was to give a cold bat as a punter? It was my mother's.
19:23I wasn't sure if it would be a punishment effective or not.
19:30Piesk actually knows exactly how often these baths occurred, because Paul and Shonda documented
19:36every single instance of this over text, and Timothy was subjected to them constantly. Even worse,
19:42they would last up to nine hours at a time. And remember, Timothy weighed only 69 pounds. He barely
19:49had a drop of body fat on him, meaning that he would have felt the effects of the cold
19:53considerably more than the average person. This is why the autopsy turned up the evidence
19:58of hypothermia, and ruled it as one of his main causes of death.
20:02You remember the first time you guys did it? Why?
20:04No, not exactly. What did you do on that day? It was not the photo that made you have to
20:09do a cold bat. I think it was that you not only peed, but also pooped. And my mother wasn't
20:19too happy because it absolutely reeked. Yeah. I mean, we talk about bed. I don't understand
20:23you go to the house and get to all the messages. Yeah.
20:26As Pisk mentions, Timothy didn't sleep in a bed. He slept in a small, cramped closet that
20:35he couldn't even stand up in. And the punishment that Paul mentioned, well, that would have
20:40actually happened either way. Inside the basement where Timothy slept were multiple cameras and
20:45an alarm on the door. If he'd have gone to the bathroom instead, then he would have been
20:50punished for leaving his room. Timothy was completely trapped.
20:54We wanted, we always wanted what's the best thing. We, so you guys decided to move into the closet.
21:01There's an environment on the door. It's that, so what's that for? When he would try and sneak,
21:06because if you notice, there was also one in the garage door. That was also because, yeah,
21:11there's some food in there that he would try and sneak. And it wasn't just that he was hungry
21:16at some point for those. It was dead. He wanted something so he needs.
21:22Again, Pisk is being extremely nice and agreeing directly with what is said,
21:27trying to make him feel like what he's saying is still fine, so he incriminates himself even further.
21:32Mr. Shumacher, we talked about bread. For how long was he to eat just bread?
21:38A week or two? What was he having before that?
21:42We'd do ramen, sandwiches, and I think at some points we'd actually give him, like, a meal.
21:50Uh, what's up? What was he doing to have to do this?
21:55Hmm. The whole thing?
21:58Paul has no idea what to say. He's starting to realize just how cruel everything he did was,
22:05and the gravity of the situation has just hit him. He starved his little brother to death,
22:10and he can't even think of a reason why. Regardless of the circumstances or how much influence his
22:15mother had over him, he still did all of these horrifying things. And there's still even more
22:22to come.
22:23Clean up the hot spots. I know that that was you, he says,
22:26both the parchment and it was put on the bread.
22:28Was it always on the bread?
22:29Not always, no. But the thing is,
22:32it's still hard to get me seen for him.
22:34There would be times where it would do something for me because I'd accidentally
22:37put my eye on it.
22:39It was out.
22:40Now, I wonder what he thinks, whether or not there's hot people.
22:44What, what does that say?
22:47I, whenever my mother told me to put a hot sauce on it, I did.
22:51I want to know, but the ghost, or the California Reaper is, what, 2000 Skull, or 2000 Skull?
23:00What does that mean?
23:01Is this a hot sauce, or the hot, is that a heat index?
23:05It's about, that's pretty hot.
23:07Very hot.
23:08Elijah's extreme regret hot sauce is reviewed as not being something you mess around with.
23:15It measures out to 800,000 Skullville heat units,
23:19just shy of what a fresh ghost pepper would be.
23:22Paul and Shonda would routinely feed this to Timothy as a punishment,
23:26as well as putting it on the only real food he would get in a day.
23:30Piesk also made sure to ask Paul what Skullville units were
23:33to make sure he knew exactly how bad what he was doing was.
23:37He confirmed that this was very, very hot, to the point of being painful.
23:43Yet, he still went through with what he did for weeks.
23:47So, how long have you guys been using hot sauce for?
23:51Um, almost a month, maybe.
23:54Okay.
23:55And was that only on brand, or was that on other stuff, too?
23:58Uh, I think one time, we put it in some rice.
24:03But after that, I don't think we did that again.
24:05What was it useful, Greg?
24:07Because you're giving the bread to you, you know, what's the curse of the hot sauce?
24:10I know it was punishment, but honestly, I don't think it was that useful,
24:13because, like I said, he had no feeling in his tongue.
24:16He, he totally bit a hole in it at one point and didn't even feel it.
24:20Was he eating this bread at the hot sauce, or was he...
24:22Yeah.
24:23Was that really the only things he had to eat those days, or were the other things he...
24:27Um, from the bread and rice, but there's a man, not that I know of.
24:32Okay.
24:33Did you see a divide in you during that flow?
24:35Was it even more weight, or being less positive?
24:39What changed when you moved into doing that?
24:42There would be times where it would take him a moment to respond.
24:46At first, I thought it was just him acting, but then I was getting concerned.
24:51I think a week or so, maybe.
24:54Okay.
24:54Did you see this response as I delayed?
24:56Yeah.
24:57I had a knife, some hot sauce on bread.
25:00If you ever put hot sauce on the road, it's like you're on your side,
25:03you put hot sauce on the road, you're on your side.
25:04Throughout this interrogation, Paul has been consistently using his mother
25:09as a scapegoat for everything he's done, that he was just following her orders.
25:13But at the same time, it's obvious that he knows his brother was suffering through all of this.
25:19Many people are familiar with the Stanford Prison Experiment.
25:2224 male college students were split into either guards and prisoners,
25:26and for two weeks, they were supposed to simulate a prison.
25:29However, after just six days, the experiment had to be terminated due to extreme behavior.
25:34The guards quickly adapted to their position of power, and due to their role being enforced
25:38and validated by the event conductors, they began to abuse the prisoners to the point of emotional distress.
25:44That is to say, Paul was given the opportunity to be in control,
25:48and he took full advantage of it, abusing his position.
25:51At the same time, though, Paul is an adult,
25:53and at any point, he could have decided to stop or alert somebody about all of this.
25:58But he never did.
25:59Pisk is also starting to realize this, so from here on out,
26:03he's going to slowly put on the pressure that'll eventually break Paul
26:07and make him fully realize the gravity of what he's done.
26:10So, I know that when we talked yesterday, we started to run out.
26:16She was lying about some stuff, right?
26:18I know that she's a good person.
26:20I'm not doubting that at all.
26:20I mean, she never heard of any of this.
26:23But you also know this, like, I don't know,
26:27that some of the things that she was talking about, the truth, right?
26:29About, she said she didn't know there was a camera in the bathroom.
26:33But the fact of the matter, she asks you,
26:34can she send you a text message that says,
26:36make sure that the camera's in there and take the shower curtain down
26:41so I can see him?
26:42Didn't she ask you that the day before he passed away?
26:45Yeah.
26:46I know this pepper's floor is for punishment.
26:48And what did she say?
26:50She said, I didn't know anything about that.
26:53She doesn't want to appear like a bad person.
26:56She doesn't want to be the bad guy in this.
26:58We never wanted any of this.
27:00We wanted to be healthy.
27:02I know that for a fact.
27:03I should have at least put my foot down on something.
27:06Right.
27:06The pressure is already starting to cause Paul to resort to cathartic statements for him.
27:34Notice how as soon as Piesk says she was lying,
27:37he praises her and makes excuses for her,
27:40and then immediately puts his dad down,
27:42saying that she's nothing like him.
27:43He's scared,
27:44and he's trying to throw himself back into a world where he feels safe and comfortable.
27:48But that's not the world he lives in,
27:51and Piesk is about to expose that once and for all.
27:54So when you first talked to us and you talked to the police,
27:57you said he was on his bunk bed, right?
27:59Yeah.
28:00But that's not the truth?
28:01No.
28:01Okay.
28:02He was in that closet that's right there by the bunk bed?
28:04Yeah.
28:05You told us that you already snoring.
28:07Was that a lie?
28:09Yeah.
28:10Did you come up with that on your own,
28:12or did somebody ask you and say that you lived in bed?
28:14Piesk notices him start to shut down under the pressure,
28:41so eases off just a little,
28:42trying to reassure him again that he's not in any trouble,
28:45and that this isn't his fault.
28:46Piesk is almost there.
28:48He just needs to get a little more information out of him for the confession,
28:51and can't risk Paul shutting down now.
28:53So tell me what really happened in the morning,
28:55because obviously what spoke to us wasn't the truth.
28:59What really happened?
29:00I woke up, and I had been grabbing my shoes.
29:03It basically all played out, like we said.
29:05The whole morning thing was exact.
29:08He wasn't breathing in the closet.
29:09It was the closet, though.
29:11So we had to get him out of the closet to try and resuscitate him.
29:15When you guys put him out of the closet,
29:17does he have clothes off at that point,
29:18or is he in a diaper, or was that a statement?
29:22He had a shirt.
29:24I think we had put him in pants, or sweatpants.
29:28I don't know, maybe some point in the night he took them off.
29:31I don't know about that.
29:31When you say we, you weren't there, though, when we went to bed, right?
29:34No.
29:35So how would you know if he'd be for we, put him in sweatpants?
29:38Do you see what I'm in mind?
29:39Yeah.
29:40So do you know if he had pants on or not when we went to bed?
29:42No, honestly.
29:43But he didn't have them when we got him out.
29:45He had the diaper on, at least.
29:47So he has the diaper on.
29:48You're assuming that he has his shirt on.
29:50What shirt did he have on?
29:51The very same sweatshirt that we found him in.
29:54Pisk is asking some very specific questions about when Timothy was found.
30:14What Paul doesn't know is that the cops have an audio recording from one of their cameras
30:18from the exact moment they found Timothy dead.
30:24Pisk knows for certain that both Paul and Shonda have been lying this whole time,
30:53and tried to cover the death up.
30:55This is Pisk's chance to strike.
30:58He's now multiple steps ahead and has Paul on the back foot.
31:01He's now going to start tearing into Paul and his mother,
31:04ripping his worldview to shreds, and exposing them for what they really are.
31:08At that time, she decides that she's going to like him and say that he doesn't like him.
31:13I don't understand.
31:14I don't know.
31:16She doesn't want to seem like she's bad.
31:19We never, we weren't neglecting him.
31:21What you're saying, I mean, if you could talk, right, there's all these things where you're like,
31:26she didn't want to seem like this.
31:27She didn't want to seem like this.
31:28She didn't want to seem like this.
31:30Did you know that it all seems like that, right?
31:32Yes.
31:32Just look at how uncomfortable Paul is now.
31:55He can't sit still.
31:57He's covering his face and body as often as he can, and he's almost always hunched over.
32:01He's really starting to panic now, and Pisk has barely even started ripping into him.
32:06Do you and your mom agree to tell him the same thing?
32:09I think he's in the bunk bed, or how does that happen?
32:11You couldn't have both just possibly made up this little story.
32:14No.
32:14So what happened?
32:15She told you, right?
32:16She told you what to say.
32:18Does he look bad for you guys?
32:20It's not just that.
32:21We loved him.
32:22Can I ask you this?
32:23Like, straight up?
32:25You keep saying, love, love.
32:26Do you feel like this was love?
32:28That he's dead because he couldn't eat food?
32:30Does that feel like love to you?
32:32He's dead because he couldn't eat.
32:34And I don't know anybody who thinks that's love.
32:36What I think's happening is your mom convinced you that she's this perfect person, and she's
32:42asking you to do all these things that are literally killing your brother.
32:46I know she's not perfect.
32:47How is love on ice baths?
32:49How is love handcuffing?
32:50And how is love restricting movement?
32:53And how is love hot sauce in the mouth and only eating bread?
32:57What if you only got to eat bread?
32:59How would you feel?
33:01What if you only got to eat bread with hot sauce?
33:03Would you eat?
33:04No.
33:04She's not perfect, but she's not a bad person.
33:07Do you know how many good people a child to death?
33:10Tell me if one may know.
33:12That's a child who has a lot of problems, right?
33:14That's not a child that's taking care of themselves.
33:16How is that a loving person?
33:18How is that a loving mother?
33:19You know what that sounds like to me?
33:20And honestly, the worst one that I've ever met in my entire life is what it sounds like
33:25to me.
33:25Well, maybe he's taking food because he wants to live.
33:28Have you ever thought about that?
33:30Yes.
33:30Maybe he's stealing food so that he can survive.
33:33Paul has fully collapsed in on himself at this point.
33:36His worldview is starting to break into pieces.
33:39The person he looked up to, respected, and loved is now being painted as a monster that's
33:45going to prison for the rest of her life.
33:47The worst part?
33:48He hasn't even realized that he might be facing the exact same consequences.
33:54She puts you right in the middle of the square.
33:55It looks like some of the stuff's your idea.
33:57And it actually looks like in some of these things, you kind of enjoy it.
34:01You kind of enjoy punishing him for doing the wrong things.
34:04Do you feel like you kind of enjoy the punishment for this?
34:06Maybe not that he was in pain, but that you were in charge and you got to tell him,
34:11you can't do that.
34:12Go do this.
34:13This is your punishment.
34:14Did you like some of this?
34:15No.
34:16How come you guys are laughing and joking about him sometimes?
34:19With smiley faces.
34:20There's no way that you can look at yourself and think, that's okay.
34:24Why couldn't it be a piece of chicken that's cooked?
34:27Why couldn't he eat that?
34:28Why does it have to be bread with hot sauce?
34:31I think that way more of it has to do with your mom than you.
34:34This is actually the defense that Paul would use in court.
34:37And the trial would turn out to be even more interesting than the interrogation.
34:41He would try to claim that he wasn't the one in control at all.
34:43He was just following his mother's orders, doing what she was telling him.
34:47But unfortunately for him, there were messages like these, along with much more evidence yet
34:52to be discovered, that made it hard to believe that this was the truth.
34:55I don't want to live a life where I regret the fact that I hid somehow, something, and I've told you everything I know.
35:04How do you feel about living a life where you hid, that your brother wasn't eating, from a society that you hid, that your brother was dying?
35:12How do you feel about that?
35:13I hate myself, okay?
35:15Ice bath, she gave my stuff on the day that he died, right?
35:18Hitting up to it?
35:19And she wanted him to sleep in the tub, that's what I read.
35:21Did that happen?
35:22Did he sleep in the tub?
35:23No.
35:24He didn't?
35:25No.
35:25He didn't put that bath up and you guys dragged him into that closet and waited for the morning to call the police?
35:30No.
35:30That's not what happened.
35:31No.
35:32Do you think that message is just a little bit suspicious?
35:34That she sent you at just about midnight and it says he's in the closet and I had to drag him in there.
35:40You don't think he was already dying or dead at that point?
35:42Doesn't it seem like maybe he was already dead?
35:45That she put him in there so that he could wake up and have died and didn't sleep?
35:48If he can't call the police when he's in an ice bath and he freezes and he dies.
35:53Whether this was true or not will remain a mystery for a while.
35:57But whatever the case, there was certainly a large attempted cover-up by both Shonda and Paul
36:01to try and make it seem like this was somehow, someway, natural causes.
36:07Timothy was treated like dirt until the very end.
36:10And Detective Piesk has had enough.
36:12I can't even live with myself.
36:14But how do you feel over and over when you're defending your mother about how good she is?
36:18Do you feel like that's the truth anymore?
36:20Because I'm quite disgusted by her.
36:22I'm disgusted by her.
36:23She never wanted this.
36:26How smart is your mother?
36:28She's incredibly intelligent.
36:29Yeah, I couldn't allow you, right?
36:31Have you ever thought, how can a woman that's this smart, this intelligent, graduate from law school,
36:37how could she not know what's happening?
36:41How could she think this is fake?
36:43How does she not know she's a man?
36:45How does she not see that he's wasting away?
36:47And you here, you're telling me that you've got some mental health issues,
36:51but you graduated from high school, and it's very obvious to you that he's got malnutrition, right?
36:57It's very obvious to you.
36:58But your mom here's not saying that, and she's a law school graduate, and she's very smart.
37:04Do you see what I'm looking at here?
37:05She's a liar.
37:06What did she think was going to happen?
37:09I don't know.
37:09I don't know exactly what happened, so what she thought was going to happen.
37:13She never wanted him dead.
37:16She loved him.
37:17That's love for you?
37:19Everything that we talked about is love?
37:21I mean, you're joking, right?
37:23Even through the shouts of an enraged Detective Piesk,
37:26Paul still defends his mother to the very end,
37:29trying to come up with excuses for her and even take the blame.
37:32But that would all come to an end on trial.
37:35In the meantime, though, just five days after his interrogation,
37:39Paul decided to go live on Facebook to update his friends and family on everything that had happened.
37:44Given what we know now, the surviving video is probably one of the most eerie pieces of footage we've ever shown on this channel.
37:51How's it going?
37:53Hey, everybody.
37:54I just figured I'd send a quick check.
37:57We're doing good right now.
37:59We just dozed off on the couch unintentionally.
38:02and for those of you who aren't aware,
38:06my little brother has passed away,
38:09and
38:10it's a lot to deal with,
38:13but
38:13we're fine.
38:15but
38:16we just keep supporting.
38:22And
38:23yes, sir,
38:28don't put up much time to say that now.
38:30It would of course be his mother that faced the majority of the heat for Timothy's murder,
38:43so Paul decided that he would testify against his mother in an attempt to get a lighter sentence for himself.
38:48And during the course of this trial,
38:50we'd get even more information about other punishments and torture that Timothy was put through.
38:55Were there any restrictions on his movement inside the closet, or was it that he could move around however he wanted inside the closet?
39:01There were restrictions.
39:03What were the restrictions on his movement?
39:05Um, hands on his head, normally.
39:08Hands on his head, is that what you're going to get in?
39:10Yes.
39:10Is that some form of discipline for him?
39:12Yes, on his knees and against a corner on the wall.
39:16I'm going to say hands on head. I'm going to demonstrate just putting my hands just over my head like this. Is that what he was required to do?
39:22Yes.
39:22He was required to be on his knees as well?
39:24Yes, sir.
39:24Was he monitored to make sure that he was doing those things?
39:27Yes, sir.
39:27For how long would he have to do these things?
39:32Several hours.
39:33Timothy, serving with essentially zero muscle on his frame,
39:37was forced to sit in a dark closet with his hands on his head for hours at a time.
39:41Most people's arms would start to ache after just five minutes,
39:44but on top of watching him as he was like this,
39:47listen to how they made sure that he never slipped up.
39:50Did you utilize some type of alarm or alarms on his body to alert you if he was moving?
39:55A vibration detector, yes.
39:57Was there more than one that he was required to wear at times?
40:00At times, yes.
40:01Where were those devices located on his body?
40:03They were normally tied to the back loop of his belt.
40:06Was there something placed on his wrist as well at any point?
40:08Handcuffs.
40:10And before that, zip ties.
40:12Zip cups.
40:13And those were designed to restrict what?
40:16Movement.
40:16Of course, if he was to move or set those alarms off, he'd be punished again,
40:21likely with hot sauce or another ice bath.
40:23Trials like this always give a horrifying amount of insight into cases like this.
40:28As Paul was made to testify against his mother,
40:30he consistently spilled more and more details about exactly how he and his mother ended up killing Timothy,
40:36such as some of the ways they made sure he was never able to eat.
40:39There were some text messages.
40:41Do you recall a text message you changed with your mother in,
40:44whether it's around April or so,
40:46where you've alerted her to the fact that he's eaten some part of a burger?
40:50Yes.
40:51What part of the burger is it that he ate?
40:54Just the crust.
40:55What was your mother's response when you told her that he had eaten the crust of that burger?
41:00Make him throw it up.
41:01Did you try to do that?
41:02I tried at first, yes.
41:03How did you try to do that?
41:04Putting a finger into his mouth as instructed the back of his throat to induce vomiting.
41:12So who gave you the instruction to put your finger in the back of his throat?
41:15Shonda.
41:16Was there ever any other time where she instructed you to make Timothy throw up?
41:19Yes.
41:19At one point she had me heat up a pizza roll to see if he would be responsive to enticement.
41:24Did you actually do that?
41:26Yes.
41:27I held it close and when he responded, as per instruction, I was to pull it away from him.
41:36So we didn't get to eat the pizza roll?
41:38No.
41:38Paul is making an extreme effort to consistently say he was instructed to do everything.
41:43He's trying to throw as much blame off himself as possible,
41:46almost to the point where he's painting himself as a robot that simply followed what Shonda told him to do.
41:51The thing is, in a second interview conducted a week after the first, Paul was a lot more transparent.
41:57He admitted that he liked the praise from Shonda, that he liked having power and control over Timothy,
42:02that he felt good while doing it, and that he did everything willingly.
42:06Lastly, he said he felt that he was as much a murderer as his mother.
42:10All of that made it incredibly difficult to believe Paul when he stated that everything was just done as per his mother's orders.
42:17At the end of the day, Paul's motives and precise involvement in Timothy's death will never be known.
42:23He did contribute to his death.
42:25In fact, he carried out and enforced the majority of punishments that caused his death.
42:29But whether he actually wanted to do any of this is a different story.
42:33The general consensus is that he was manipulated by his mother.
42:36She made him feel that what he was doing was the right thing, and it was all just to help him.
42:42That explains why Paul was parroting so many strange statements,
42:44held such hatred for his father, and started all of this.
42:48A jury would conclude that over time, it seems as though he grew to enjoy what he did and abuse his power,
42:54just as the guards did in the Stanford Prison Experiment.
42:57And that's the perspective a jury ended up taking.
43:00Before his sentencing, Paul was evaluated by multiple doctors and experts in different fields,
43:05and was found not to have any intellectual issues nor mental disorders.
43:09Paul was of sound mind, and it was determined he had mental and physical control over everything he did.
43:15So with that in mind, it was time for his sentencing.
43:18But not before the judge was given the opportunity to finally speak his mind,
43:22and tell Paul exactly how he feels about him.
43:25Mr. Ferguson is trying to shift blame from him to his mother.
43:30To say that somehow she's the one that did this.
43:32This has been a careful, manipulated story by Mr. Ferguson from the very beginning of this thing,
43:39that he's going to put the blame on his mom.
43:41In my opinion, Paul Ferguson was predisposed to abuse his brother,
43:46independent of his mother's present and active influence in his life.
43:51I think he's one step away from becoming a psychopath like his mother,
43:55and the court is concerned that he represents a danger to the public.
43:59Mr. Ferguson, I think you are a product of your environment,
44:03but I don't believe you that you're sorry.
44:05I don't think you have empathy.
44:07I don't think you have any emotion whatsoever.
44:09And that's what scares the court.
44:11Believe me, I've tried to sit here and try to think,
44:14well, maybe Mr. Ferguson's not as bad as mom.
44:17I think you're just as bad, if not worse.
44:20Shonda Van Der Ark was charged with first-degree murder and first-degree child abuse,
44:25and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole,
44:29plus 50 years for the child abuse charge.
44:32Her son, Paul Ferguson, was charged with first-degree child abuse,
44:36resulting in the death of his younger brother, Timothy Ferguson.
44:39This was his sentence and his reaction.
44:42You intentionally and systematically tortured your child.
44:46Based on all that, it's a sentence of the court.
44:48You served 30 years to 100 years in the Department of Corrections.
44:52This is a sentence of no longer, YouTube.
44:54Underquele wanna be the first-degree adult or whatever you want,
44:57the Estados- ì„ ë¬¼ was called the one that lifts up the child.
44:57Because you're eating these metabolites,
44:58you have to reach them because they're talking about the fighting.
45:00You've been having to receive the children in the Department ofincolnctions.
45:01And
45:05whatever according to this, it's called Anonymous.
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