Summary
A West Virginia couple, Jeanne Kay Whitefeather and Donald Lantz, received prison sentences of 215 and 160 years, respectively, for forcing their five adopted Black children into slave labor.
Authorities discovered the abuse after a welfare check revealed children locked in a shed without water or sanitation.
The couple, charged with human trafficking, child neglect, and forced labor, targeted the children because of their race.
The court ordered them to pay $280,000 in restitution each.
"Almost heaven, West Virginia. Blue Ridge Mountains, Shanendoah River.
Life is old there, older than the trees.
Younger than the mountains, growing like the breeze.
Country roads, take me home, to the place I belong"
Funny thing about that–the authors had no significant ties to West Virginia and were instead inspired by a road trip through Maryland. https://www.baltimoreexaminer.com/john-denver-country-roads/
I’d once heard that it wasn’t even about West Virginia, the state, but rather west Virginia, the region. Dunno about the veracity of that statement, but