FED TO THE PIG
This evil, twisted father committed unspeakable acts of cruelty against his own son
THE crime ittle Adrian L Jones was forced to endure a living hell at the hands of his father Michael Jones and his stepmother Heather Jones. He was starved, beaten, tortured and humiliated for months on end. The details of his treatment are simply horrific. And when the boy finally gave up his struggle for life, his dad let a pack of pigs devour his remains…
THE STORY
He had huge, innocent eyes and a smile that lit up the room.
Adrian Jones was full of curiosity, football-mad and adored by his sisters.
Most dads would have been proud to call him their little boy. But Michael Jones, 46, wasn’t like most dads.
When Jones split up with Adrian’s mum Dainna Pearce, he got custody of Adrian, 7, and two of his sisters.
Dainna was far from a model mum, often leaving Adrian in the care of an older sister for hours on end.
Still, this was nothing compared to the horror the little boy faced once he moved into his father’s isolated house in Kansas City, Missouri.
He quickly went from being full of life to quiet and sullen – hardly surprising.
Together, Michael and his new wife Heather, 31, unleashed unimaginable acts of brutality on Adrian.
As well as starving him until he was skin and bone, they regularly beat him.
On one occasion, they jabbed him in the face with a broom handle, making a deep gash on his cheek, which poured with blood. Instead of treating the injury, the couple instead took photos of him.
In fact, taking pictures of the little boy being tortured was something they did regularly – almost as if they were proud of it.
The harrowing images reveal the shocking nature of the abuse Adrian was forced to endure.
One of their favourite torture techniques was to make him stand in the shallow end of the family’s swimming pool for hours on end, up to his neck in filthy, freezing water.
They also forced him to stand in the shower, locked in by a piece of plywood and watching at all times from a camera above the tiny cubicle.
In a desperate attempt to escape, Adrian tried to chew his way through the plywood, causing agonising red sores on his lips.
His skinny body was frequently strapped to an inversion table, with his eyes blindfolded and his arms tied above his head.
His feet were forced down with weights so heavy that his ankles swelled to twice their size.
Harrowing images show how Jones and his wife strapped chopping boards to Adrian’s torso for hours, so he was forced to stand straight. His arms were also bandaged against
Finally, the abuse proved too much for his tiny body…
splints, so he couldn’t bend them, causing incredible pain.
Shockingly, as part of the relentless abuse, the child was shot with a stun gun for up to 20 agonising seconds at a time.
He was also made to stand for hours with his hands above his head and, at his father’s slightest whim, his mouth would be stuffed with soap.
The couple also made videos, as part of their documentation of the cruelty they inflicted.
One particularly distressing clip shows the child shackled, standing outside in pyjamas on a freezing January evening.
He is shown shivering and on his knees, begging for mercy.
Another video shows the little boy so desperately thirsty that he tries to reach a cup of water with just his mouth, as his arms have been tied behind his back.
Adrian was even deprived of the dignity of being called by name. Instead, his stepmother referred to him only as ‘The Boy’.
On the Internet, the couple priced up straitjackets they intended to use to restrain him.
Finally, the horrific abuse proved too much for Adrian’s tiny body. At some point between 18 September and 4 October 2015, he died – a year after going to live with his father.
But, even in death, there was no dignity for poor Adrian. For weeks, the couple lived with the body – but when the stench became too much, Jones bought six hungry pigs. He then callously tossed his own son’s remains into their pen and left them to devour what little flesh there was covering his bones. The wicked couple thought they’d got away with it. But, two months later, police found Adrian’s remains when called to the house during a violent domestic incident.
The couple were arrested, but the full, horrifying details of the crimes against Adrian were only discovered when the couple’s landlady agreed to log on to Heather’s laptop to e-mail Heather pictures of her children while she awaited trial for first-degree murder.
The landlady was sickened by what she found and promptly took the laptop to the police.
It was too late for the evidence to be used against Heather – but it was used in the trial against Michael.
In court, the prosecutor spoke of the shocking nature of the case as, ‘the most heinous crime I have ever prosecuted’.
Detective Stuart Littlefield also told the court about the huge emotional impact the case had on his officers – and how he hoped it was Adrian’s name that was remembered, not those of his abusers.
‘I hope that in 25 years, when Michael Jones is eligible for parole, people remember Adrian Jones. He was 7 years old, he was tortured, shackled and beaten to death,’ he said.
‘And when his killers could no longer stand the stench of his body, he was fed to pigs.’
Michael Jones pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life, with a minimum term of 25 years.
Heather Jones, who admitted the charge but blamed the abuse on her husband, was also sentenced to life, without any chance of release for 25 years.
She was also sentenced to an additional five years and eight months after pleading guilty to two counts of child abuse.
Adrian’s sisters, 12 and 7, are in foster care and undergoing therapy to help them recover.