A Pennsylvania couple is accused of beating 3-year-old Scott McMillan to death and assaulting his older brother during a three day reign of torture authorities called an “American horror story”.
Jillian Tait, 31, and Gary Lee Fellenbaum, 23, were arrested and charged with murder for the death of Tait’s 3-year-old and aggravated assault for beating her 6-year-old son, AP reports. The couple and Tait’s kids resided in Coatsville, PA, in a mobile home shared with Fellenbaum’s 21-year-old estranged wife and their 11 – month-old daughter. There in the mobile home, the couple engaged in weeks of abuse that escalated into an “unspeakable act of depravity,” said Chester County District Attorney Thomas Hogan. Sources say the couple hung the Scott upside down by each of his legs, whipped and beat him with a frying pan while laughing.
After beating him unconscious, the couple placed him in the shower then left Scott to die on an uninflated air mattress while the two went car shopping, bought pizza, had sex and napped. Fellenbaum’s estranged wife Amber Fellenbaum,21, called 911 after the boy failed to wake up. By then, the boy had been unresponsive for hours. Fellenbaum was charged for child endangerment for allegedly failing to help the child when she knowingly knew about the abuse.
In the days leading up to his death, Gary Fellenbaum severely beat the boy for refusing to eat toast both Monday and Tuesday morning, authorities said. Gary Fellenbaum disciplined the boy by throwing him against a wall, knocking him off a chair with a punch and then taping him to the chair to keep him upright for more beatings, police said.
The couple are being held without bail until their next court appearance on November 14. Amber Fellenbaum was being held on $500,000 bail.