The Williams Arrested For The Death of Hana Grace

We have been following the story of Hana Grace Williams who was found dead outside her home last May.  The only reason this story is of interest to this blog is that the Williams were known to be following The Pearls’ teachings with their children before they adopted Hana and her brother in 2008.  Any link between this death and the Pearls’ Teachings is purely speculation and is covered in this post.  To reiterate and clarify, the Pearls’ teachings do not appear to be directly responsible for this death. Pearls’ teachings do not recommend the kind of abuse which is described in the following articles which I  will warn you now are tragic and very disturbing.

The parents, Larry and Carri Williams, have been arrested, charged with abuse leading to her to death ( as well as the abuse of her brother) and are being held on $500,000 bail. Here are links to news stories which report on this:

Couple arrested, charged with abusing child to death from Goskagit.com

Skagit County couple charged with death of adopted child from NWCN.com (which mentions To Train Up A Child and the plumbing line)

Murder charges for parents who left girl outside from The Seattle Times

Adoptive parents Carri and Larry Williams charged with Hana Williams’ death from Quipshots blog

I will remark that if you read the very disturbing sheriff’s report you will note that the Williams speak of rebellious behavior and when the child was clearly in distress they saw her as “pretending that she couldn’t stand or walk.”  The adversarial mindset which they learned from the Pearls is a dangerous one and while a tenuous link indeed, it is still of interest to myself and other readers of this blog.

I would also suggest that the abuse of Hana’s 10 yr old brother does sound very much like what the Pearls teach, except that I doubt that the Pearls would suggest one punish a child for urinary leakage when there is a known medical cause or for not hearing when he is deaf.  If you read that entire report  you will see many of the Pearls’ teachings referenced, however, even I will admit that they took these teachings were taken to extremes which the Pearls did not intend.

Edited to add:
Washington state couple charged in adopted daughter’s death from Fox WXIN

This article contains an interesting quote:

The investigation into the Williams family, including whether the biological children were abused, was continuing, she added, adding that the process can take months.

As far as I could tell, they were following the Pearls’ teachings pretty closely with the biological children so if they should determine that they were abused, this could have serious implications.

5 Comments

  1. anonymous on June 23, 2012 at 6:55 am

    As a parent of an internationally adopted child, and as someone who chose to discontinue a second adoption prior to traveling to Ethiopia to meet her and bring her home because of the extensive changes in the adoption process while we were in the process, I know that at least for Ethiopia, the family is required to have multiple home studies during the first year after adoption, and yearly until the child is 18 years old…apparently this was not happening in this family. It is not only terribly sad that this family was obviously not prepared for the rigors of adopting an older child from another race/culture/language, and ultimately caused the death of their daughter, but situations like this also influence the adoption process in general, making it difficult for other families who do understand what they are getting in to and who do want to complete their families with this kind of adoption to actually be able to do so. Sad all around…even if these parents are brought to justice, their other kids have already been damaged by being exposed to this kind of parenting and may continue the cycle of abuse into their own adult lives as parents themselves.

  2. Analyzing Carri Williams | Why Not Train A Child? on October 28, 2011 at 2:51 pm

    […] have wondered why Carri Williams adopted Hana only to abuse her to death.  Someone with a little inside knowledge has speculated on the reasons and has graciously given me […]

  3. Zooey on September 30, 2011 at 9:34 pm

    This is heartbreaking.
    I totally agree that there has to be something more done to protect children against such horrible abuse.

  4. Richrd on September 30, 2011 at 5:15 pm

    Thank you for picking up this story. Is very familiar pattern of abuse of overseas adopted children as seen in Schatz case. Linkage to Pearls is important but more so we need strenuous regulation on accepting overseas adoption by parents who are clerly not qualified

    • Hermana Linda on September 30, 2011 at 8:13 pm

      I agree. The adoption agencies really need to start making sure that prospective families are not following the Pearls’ teachings.

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