Awful New Details About The 5-Year-Old Boy Who Was Starved To 29 Pounds And Forced To Live In A Crawl Space
His mother was sentenced to 28 years in prison.
getty A Texas woman was sentenced to 28 years in prisons for nearly abusing her 5-year-old stepson to death in 2014.
Tammi and Bradley Bleimeyer were both charged with causing injury to a child after police learned they had been starving and abusing their son Jordan Bleimeyer. Tammi's 16-year-old son told police of the abuse in March 2014.
Officers learned that Tammi and Bradley had not only starved Jordan until he weighed 29 pounds but also forced him to wear a diaper and live in a crawlspace that was covered with wires and exposed nails. If he didn't eat the slices of bread that were fed to him fast enough, they were taken away.
“He was nearly starved to death,” Assistant District Attorney Stephen Driver said. “Doctors compared his state of malnourishment to that of a Holocaust survivor.”
According to police, Tammi and Bradley were uncooperative when they were initially trying to locate Jordan, and that Tammi had removed him from the home before police arrived. It took a day before they found Tammi and Jordan at a hotel, completely frail and covered in bumps and bruises.
Child Protective Services reportedly visited Jordan in February 2014, leaving investigators to believe that his health had rapidly deteriorated within a month. The family began to be investigated in January 2014.
Police who found Jordan said that he was close to death and would have died "within days."
During the trial, it was also revealed that the child was drugged by his father so that he would be quiet when other people came over. He also wasn't allowed to eat with the other seven Bleimeyer children at the dinner table.
Jordan's stepbrother also believed that someone had run the child's head into a wall and stunned him with a Taser.
The couple was arrested and charged in February 2015. Bradley pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
During Tammi's trial, one of her biological sons testified against her.
"I'm up here to ask a rhetorical question of how, how could you put your children through all that? The people who should be your pride and joy. You caused me feelings of sadness, anger, confusion, and emptiness. I can't say that I'll ever be the same emotionally because of this."
Jordan, now 9, is healthy and living with his biological mother.
Emily is a writer living in California. She covers all things news, pop culture and true crime.