West Virginia Reaches $4.4M Settlement With Five Children Subjected to Deplorable Living Conditions by Adopted Parents

The state of West Virginia has reached a $4.4 million settlement with five children who were subjected to deplorable living conditions in Kanawha County.

The children had been adopted by Sissonville couple Jeanne Kay Whitefeather and Donald Ray Lantz. A Kanawha County jury convicted Whitefeather and Lantz on 31 of 35 criminal charges in a January 2025 for abusing the children. The investigation began in October 2023 after neighbors suspected two of the teenage children were being locked in a shed on the property and were being forced to work.

Read more at WCHS