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The Raven Knocks
True Crime/Missing Persons/Cold Cases- I decided to begin a podcast regarding true crime because I feel like some of the victim's story never gets told due to it being to graphic or not admissible in court. I also think that Justice is lost in some of these cases and it's not right. I hope I can be a voice for the ones who lost theirs and perhaps make this world a slightly better place, and have you thinking more cautiously.
The Raven Knocks
The House of Horror: The story of Stoni and Steven
Can you imagine discovering the unfathomable atrocities happening within the very walls meant to be a safe haven for children? Join me, Amy Prince, as I take you through the haunting story of Michelle Blair and her children, a heart-wrenching case that defies comprehension. This episode, "House of Horrors," exposes the unimaginable abuse and torment suffered by siblings Stoney and Stephen at the hands of their mother. We explore the dark and tragic reality of this family, unveiling a chilling narrative that serves as a grave reminder of the silent horrors that can occur unnoticed behind closed doors. With great care, we approach this sensitive subject to honor the victims and raise awareness about the crucial need for vigilance against child abuse.
In the second chapter, "Speak Up," we shift our focus to the imperative role of intervention when child abuse is suspected. Despite our innate inclination to rescue animals, there is often hesitance when it comes to children. This hesitation can have dire consequences. By saving the Child Protective Services number in your phone and staying alert to warning signs in your surroundings, you can be a lifeline for a child in distress. Let's empower each other to act without hesitation, amplifying the message that every alert and report can make a world of difference. Subscribe, share, and stand together with us in our mission to protect those who cannot protect themselves.
Hey guys, welcome to the Raven Knox. I'm your host, amy Prince, and today I've got you a bonus episode. It's a short episode. However, it is very important. I think, that the word gets out on this, and again it is about children. So if you have a trigger for children, I advise you to skip this episode. Today I'm going to talk about the House of Horrors, the story of Stoney and Stephen.
Speaker 1:Please note that the content of this recording may contain graphic material, including torture, and explicit language may be used. The opinions are of my own and may be offensive to some listeners. They are my opinions, everyone has them, and if you do not agree, then ignore them like an adult and move on. Listener, discretion is strongly advised. So what do you do to someone who has been raping your six-year-old son? Would you punch them, put a bag over their head until they lost consciousness, hit them over and over in the head and in the back with a two-by-four? Would you starve them, burn them, throw scalding hot water on them and their genitals so much that their skin falls off? Would you do this until they died? Would you do the same to another person who is also reported doing the same thing? The other person ejaculated in his eyes and peed on him, forced his head into the plastic of the mattress so he couldn't breathe, forced him to drink Windex. What if I told you that the rapist were a 13-year-old girl and a 9-year-old boy? And what if I told you that they were all siblings? Your two kids were abusing your youngest child? Would this change your mind? I'll let you take a minute and think on that.
Speaker 1:Michelle Blair is 35 years old and had four kids, and she was a single parent. The first two kids had the same father and the youngest two had the same father. Her oldest daughter, gabby, said that her mother hated their father. When they were together. She would take out her anger on him. They were together. She would take out her anger on him when she got rid of him. The anger turned for the kids. She said her mother was not affectionate at all. The most affection they ever would get is a kiss. Goodnight.
Speaker 1:She awoke from a bad dream that she had had and she woke up. Her mom to tell her about it. She was seeking comfort, but her mother told her to go back to bed. She didn't care about no damn dream. She knew then that her mother was not the person who would comfort her. She said she would read a lot and get lost within the books.
Speaker 1:She thought her childhood was normal and that the childhood that she saw on TV was all fantasy. They stayed hungry. Blair would take her food stamps and trade them for alcohol and drugs. They always ran out of food. Sometimes they were forced to eat canned potatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. To this day she can't stand canned potatoes. You never got seconds because even if you asked, you were being greedy.
Speaker 1:She said her mother always had a lit fuse. You just didn't know when she was going to go off. The smallest of things would set her off. She would be called stupid and dumb and was forced to do wall sits. That's where your back is against the wall and you slide down the wall into a sitting position, kind of like you were sitting on an imaginary chair. She said this would cause intense pain in her legs but she didn't dare fall because the punishment would be worse. They would have to sit like that for hours. She said her mom was always nice in public and she thought all households were this way.
Speaker 1:As time went on, the punishments got worse. Her mom began using an extension cord and at times she would make them bend over and touch their toes while she hit them in the back with a belt buckle. She had a scar on her lip from when her mom threw a toy at her and it cut her lip. She also has a scar on her forehead where she was hit with a 2x4. 75% of her back is covered in scars from burns from a hot iron. Her mom would make them stand in a bathtub and throw scalding hot water on them. One time she wasn't still when her mom was trying to do her hair and she took a curling iron and hit her in the face with it. It broke one of her teeth. She was told to tell people that her brother did it. Her aunt noticed it one time and offered to take her to the dentist to get it fixed, but her mom stated that she liked it that way because it made her look different. The aunt looked at her and said really. And she looked at her mom and out of fear she said yes, her mom was afraid of getting caught with medical professionals so they never went to doctor's appointments or anything.
Speaker 1:Michelle walked in on her six-year-old son playing with his toy wrestlers. She was shocked to see that her six-year-old had had them in a sexual position. She asked him if that had ever happened to him and he said no. She continued to ask him until he said yes. His sister would later go on to say that he said that out of fear and he was just telling her what she wanted to hear. She became convinced that the other kids were abusing him. She said her mom got an extension cord and wrapped it around Stephen's neck apparently the brother that did this to him and she lifted him off the ground.
Speaker 1:She went into her room with Stephen and closed the door. She would strangle him, starve him, hit him on his head so much that his head was misshapen. She made him stand in the bathtub as she poured scalding hot water on his genitals until the skin came off. She tortured him for weeks. Stephen was only nine years old. She finally stopped and said that she thought he had learned his lesson by now, but it was too late. The next day Michelle had wrapped him in a blanket and she was sitting in the floor holding him. She told her to say goodbye to her brother. So she did, and she told him that she loved him. And then he died. Her mom then made her help her, lift him up and put him in a freezer.
Speaker 1:Gabby was hoping it was all a bad dream, but as days passed it sank in. She said her mother grew paranoid and at this point the threats and punishments were more harsh. She knew that if she messed up she would also be in the freezer with her brother. Before leaving school, her mom would sit them down and make sure they had the correct cover story. She said she wanted to tell, but she was afraid that she wouldn't be believed and she didn't want to leave her siblings.
Speaker 1:About nine months after Steven died, she began asking Stoney, the 13-year-old girl, if she had abused her little brother. She also asked the six-year-old. She threatened to beat him if he didn't tell her the truth. Out of sheer terror he said yes, because when he would say no she would ask him again and threaten him. So he told her what she wanted to hear. She immediately began to beat Stoney, slamming her head against the wall, and she began torturing Stoney just as she had with Stephen, but this time she added a new punishment she would also starve Stoney to death. She would also starve Stoney to death.
Speaker 1:Gabby stated she was terrified and she was afraid that she was going to go into her room one day and see Stoney dead. Now they were due for a house inspection and her mom made her clean the apartment and she became very agitated. There were blood stains on her wall in her bedroom, but Gabby was able to clean them away. She cleaned the apartment from top to bottom. Michelle made Stoney lay under the bed and dared her to move or speak. She then laid a big blanket on the bed that went to the floor to hide Stoney Once the inspectors came. She then laid a big blanket on the bed that went to the floor to hide Stoney Once the inspectors came. She followed them, making sure to talk and distract them and to also let Stoney know that she was in the room. After they had left, her mom hit Stoney with a 2x4 in the head and blood splattered everywhere. She said her mom was actually cheering and saying ooh, look at that. She then goes and grabs a pajama top and she begins to strangle Stoney with it.
Speaker 1:She thought Stoney was dead at this time as they were putting her in the freezer. Stoney was still alive. Once in the freezer, her mom took a bag and tried to suffocate her with it, but got fed up and said she was good as dead anyway and just closed the lid. She told her daughter, gabby, not to cry over that bitch. She said that bitch hurt your brother and caused all of this. Gabby was really afraid for her life and she hated walking past that freezer, but there was no way to avoid it. One day her mom asked her to go to the grocery store. She told her that she could leave and not come back. That was her choice, but if she ever brought the cops to her place she would kill her little brother and kill herself and it would all be on her.
Speaker 1:Two years later her mom up and said that they were leaving. They were being evicted from the apartment for failure to pay rent. She about loses it at this time because it's now the time that she knows that she's fixing to get called. She has nowhere to go and she has nowhere to put that freezer. They were being evicted from the apartment because she wasn't paying rent. They went over the neighbor's house and she was so thankful just to be alive. Michelle told the neighbor that Stephen and Stoney were dead. They had been dead for the last two years and she told them that she killed them and that she had been hiding them. She asked the neighbor if Gabby and the youngest boy could stay with her for a while and the neighbor agreed could stay with her for a while. And the neighbor agreed.
Speaker 1:Gabby and her little brother went upstairs and turned on the TV to find a picture of their apartment and the police. She was then called downstairs by a policeman. Her mother was there and she was handcuffed. Her mom apologized to her and her brother over and over, and then her mom asked for a hug. She never got a hug from her mother, but she just leaned in. She did not wrap her arms around her and her mom obviously couldn't. Then they took her mother away. She said she was so angry with her mom and her mom had no remorse. She also feels bad because her sister saw her help. Her mother put her into the freezer and she never told her how much she loved her. Later, during the court hearings, she said that she was so embarrassed at how her mom was acting. She would be so volatile and so very verbal.
Speaker 1:During these meetings Her mom pled guilty and she told the judge every single thing that she'd done to both of the children. She stated that she poured hot water on them until their skin came off. She hit them, made them drink. Windex starved them them made them drink windex starved them, hit them with a two-by-four. She burned them. She strangled them and she meant for Stoney to die because she was the mastermind and she was the oldest in this situation. She made Stephen do what he did and so with Stephen, she didn't mean for him to die, but that she did admit that he died as a result of what she had done to him.
Speaker 1:She said if she had to do it all over again, that she would, that those two were demons, that she would, that those two were demons. She also said now she only had two children. She would never claim the ones that she had killed. She said she did call the cops at one point for advice on what would happen in that situation. They had told her she would need to call CPS, but more than likely they would remove all of the children from the house until they finished with her investigation. She said at that point she didn't want to lose her other two children, so she never called them. I believe she didn't want CPS involved because she would be charged with the abuse that she was giving on all of the children. Her mother was sentenced to life in prison. Gabby stated that she first wanted her mother to die for what she had done, but later she had changed her mind. She said as long as she was alive she would have to remember what she had done and she hoped that it tormented her until her very last day.
Speaker 1:I want to take a minute and give you all the number to the child abuse hotline. The number to the child abuse hotline. That number is 1-800-422-4453. That's 1-800-442-4453. Begin to 1-800-422-4453.
Speaker 1:It amazes me how someone can see a stray dog on the side of the road or someone abusing a dog and they immediately call the appropriate officials for it. However, when they see a child and they think that something's quite not right, they tend to mind their own business. They don't ever call why. I mean, worst case, cps comes out and they find nothing. But what if? What if that feeling you have is right? What if you're looking in the eyes of a child that is going through this but is too afraid to speak up? Have you ever thought about it that way? I mean, yeah, it's an inconvenience if everything's okay, but what if it's not? You could save a life of a child just by not minding your own business and looking and, if there's something off, following your gut and calling about it.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening, guys. I know that that was a short story, but regardless of how short it was, it was still important. These kids suffered way too much for their story not to be told Again. I plead with you if you see anything out of the ordinary or if your gut tells you something's wrong, please pick up the phone and call. I would save it in my phone because you never know where you're at whether you're in Walmart, in a parking lot, somewhere, anywhere. It happens everywhere. Don't be blind to it, just call. This has been a bonus episode of the Raven Knots. If you like what you see in here, please share and subscribe and invite your friends. I really do appreciate all those who are supporting me. I cannot begin to tell you how much I appreciate that this has been a Southern Sass production and until then, everyone avoid rest stops. Report what you see, please, and be safe.
