May 29, 2025 • 10 mins
Dr. Vanessa Tyler recounts the horrific case of Jeanne Whitefeather and Donald Lantz, a West Virginia couple sentenced to prison for child abuse, trafficking and forced labor of their adopted Black children.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Step into a West Virginia courtroom. The judge is just
about to throw the book at a white couple who
tortured their adopted black kids. It came out during trial
they treated them like slaves, and Circuit court Judge Mary
Claire Akers isn't having it.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Both of you refuse to accept responsibility throughout the trial
and still here today, which makes my job a lot easier.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
And instead of apologizing today because you never have said
you're sorry for what you did do, let's put on
one of the most reprehensible narcissistic defenses that I have
ever seen in nine years of trial work. And may
God have mercy on your souls, because this court will.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Not Their sentence will be handed down in minutes. In
black Land and now, as.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
A brown person, you just feel so invisible.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Where we're from.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Others and sisters are welcome you to this joyful exaia.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
We celebrate freedom.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Where we are, I know someone's heard something.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
And where we're going. We the people means all the people.
The Black Information Network presents black Land with your host
Vanessa Tyler. First of all, neighbors knew something was fishy.
An older white couple, sixty two year old Donald Lance
and his sixty three year old wife, Jeanie Whitefeather moved
to a speck of a place called Sissonville, West Virginia,
(01:32):
population about four thousand, and they had five black kids
in tow siblings they adopted. Neighbors noticed the black kids
working the land for hours like slaves, other weird stuff
like the kids standing outside in one spot, lined up,
not moving with their hands on their heads. That began
(01:53):
what became several calls to child Protective Services. But this
is what did it when neighbors saw two of the
older children, ages fourteen and sixteen living locked in the
barn more like a shed, no heat or air, no
bed or bathroom.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
One word or emergency. I'm not and I talk about
that four more. LA.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
There's a family that we have been caught in CPS
con back from time who.
Speaker 6 (02:26):
Had to kid rocked in and out building.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
The timing was perfect, the parents were not at home.
Sheriff deputies came broke down the shed door. When testified
with opening the door was like I was a paul for.
Speaker 7 (02:39):
The lack of a better term. As soon as the
door was open, the heat from inside hit us and
the smell was it made.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
My eyes water.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Conditions in that funky barn, the deputy says, hardly appropriate.
Four children.
Speaker 7 (02:56):
There was a table in one chair, running water, no
circulating air, no bed, very the toilet where the children
was it looked like a hospital pan or like a
camping toilet.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Then there was a third child deputies found in the house.
Speaker 7 (03:17):
I don't believe there was any circulating air in the
house either. It was a very nice house. There was
no hardly furniture in it, very hot, very very empty.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Also taking the stand during the trial that had the
white parents and handcuffs, where the white neighbors who saw
the black children were not clean, groomed, cared for. The kids,
carried buckets of water back and forth, working outside in
all weather. Neighbors compared notes so.
Speaker 8 (03:46):
They'd be like, hey, I've not seen these kids change.
Have you seen these kids change? Nope, they were wearing
the same thing from yesterday that they were or they're
from five days ago that.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
They had on.
Speaker 8 (03:55):
So it was involving like, you know, you don't want
to be suspicious of people, but you are when you
start noticing those different details every day are the same thing.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
The charges stunned the town. The parents hit with human
trafficking never tried here before, also charges of abuse and
civil rights violations. The couple and the children moved from
Washington State and stuck out like a sore thumb to
document the horror. There was video since the parents for
a twenty four hour surveillance stuck a camera in that barn.
(04:28):
You see the children with their once daily meal of
peanut butter sandwiches, sleeping on the floor, standing with their
hands on their heads. It was a case that made
headline news and everybody was talking.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
This is a couple out of West Virginia who adopted
five black children. And this couple is being accused right
now of forcing those children to work as slaves.
Speaker 6 (04:57):
It is a case that is soa brutal and upsetting
that it is drawn national outrage. Jan Whitefeather and Donald Lance,
a white West Virginia couple, adopted five black children, but
not to love them, no to amuse them.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Jeanie Whitefeather and her husband, Donald Lance, adopted the five
children in twenty eighteen. The white couple claims one of
the older kids, a boy, had mental issues, which is
why he and his sister were in what White Feather
and her husband called the clubhouse.
Speaker 8 (05:29):
Did you lock your kids up in a barn?
Speaker 4 (05:31):
No?
Speaker 3 (05:31):
I did not. What about the classroom? Did you lock
them up in the classroom?
Speaker 8 (05:34):
I did?
Speaker 9 (05:35):
Note hours of video here.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Like they were locked in? Can you tell me they
were locked in? They weren't locked and they had a
key and they could come and go as they pleased.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Jeanie Whitefeather on the stand. Listen as she pushes back
against allegations she took a whip to the fourteen year
old boy with the mental issues.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Hey, I'm it's mommy.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
I mean they canness on me, but I don't.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
I will know read this on them. As far as
I'm concerned, They're my children. I love all my children.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
The older daughter called her a monster. Donald Lance, testifying
about the difficulty raising the boy with the issues, he
says he constantly wet his pants.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
You know.
Speaker 8 (06:19):
That old kids.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
You know my suspense. You know, it gets a little
bit frustrating because every time it takes time, you have
to getting cleaned up, changes clothes, and it's just it's
just frustrating.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
The cruel couple had texts with racial slurs about the kids.
Jeanie sprayed the children with bear spray. She tried her
best to clean up the damage, convinced the jury they
weren't doing it for the money. They really had the
best intentions.
Speaker 9 (06:53):
I just like the court to know that I have
made mistakes and I'm very sorry for that, and I
love my children.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
The verdict is in the jury find the defendant, Genie K.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Whitefeather, guilty be on a reasonable doubt of human trafficking of.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
A minor child.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
After listening to testimony for two weeks, the jury came
back guilty for her. There was the added guilty for
violating the civil rights of the children. The couple claimed
they just wanted to adopt one child, opting in the end,
not to break up the siblings and adopt them all.
In twenty eighteen, they say the children became too much
(07:30):
to handle. They moved from Washington State to West Virginia
in twenty twenty three. They needed a quiet place. The
prosecutor says, they thought a town in a ruby red
state would provide them racial cover.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
They bet the.
Speaker 7 (07:46):
People of West Virginia would not care if they mistrated
their black children right.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
Out in front of the world.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
White neighbors agree the adopted parents were wrong about that
we're not just.
Speaker 8 (07:57):
Red legs for Hicks. I know that doesn't watch out
for one another. The biggest thing about Western is we
all love one another, and we're going to notice when
you're doing something wrong, and we're gonna stick up for
those people.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Jeanie White father, clinging to the fantasy that she's a
good mother.
Speaker 9 (08:12):
I just like the court funael that I have made
mistakes and I'm very sorry for that, and I love
my children. I have never ever done anything to anyone
of my eight children.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
In weeks later, judgment day time for the sentence, Judge
Agres gets her say. Before handing down sentencing, she told
them what she really thinks of these so called loving parents.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Those of you.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Refuse to accept responsibility throughout the trial and still here today,
which makes my job around easier.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
And instead of apologizing today because you never have said
you're sorry for what you did do, was put on
one of the most reprehensible, narcissistic defenses that I have
ever seen for nine years of trial work. And may
God have mercy on your souls, because this court will not, and.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
The court did not for Genie Whitefeather two hundred and
fifteen years behind bars, and for Donald Lance one hundred
and sixty years in prison. The children, the three oldest
who testified about years of abuse neglect. They also gave
victim impact statements. One read she would be something in
life in spite of the White couple. Funny one of
(09:31):
the kids asked if they Genie Whitefeather and Donald Lance
could be made to stand with their hands on their heads. Ironically,
the judge says that would be cruel and unusual punishment.
The kids are thriving now living in foster care. Prosecutors
thank the neighbors for seeing something and saying something, but
it is the children who face their monsters who will
(09:53):
be remembered most.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
I can't imagine the courage it took for a child
to take this stand and testify against someone who, at
one point in their life.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
They considered amer.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
The couple, now sitting in prison, plans to appeal. I'm
Vanessa Tyler. Be sure to check back. A new episode
of black Land drops every week.
Step into a West Virginia courtroom. The judge is just
about to throw the book at a white couple who
tortured their adopted black kids. It came out during trial
they treated them like slaves, and Circuit court Judge Mary
Claire Akers isn't having it.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Both of you refuse to accept responsibility throughout the trial
and still here today, which makes my job a lot easier.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
And instead of apologizing today because you never have said
you're sorry for what you did do, let's put on
one of the most reprehensible narcissistic defenses that I have
ever seen in nine years of trial work. And may
God have mercy on your souls, because this court will.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Not Their sentence will be handed down in minutes. In
black Land and now, as.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
A brown person, you just feel so invisible.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Where we're from.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Others and sisters are welcome you to this joyful exaia.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
We celebrate freedom.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Where we are, I know someone's heard something.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
And where we're going. We the people means all the people.
The Black Information Network presents black Land with your host
Vanessa Tyler. First of all, neighbors knew something was fishy.
An older white couple, sixty two year old Donald Lance
and his sixty three year old wife, Jeanie Whitefeather moved
to a speck of a place called Sissonville, West Virginia,
(01:32):
population about four thousand, and they had five black kids
in tow siblings they adopted. Neighbors noticed the black kids
working the land for hours like slaves, other weird stuff
like the kids standing outside in one spot, lined up,
not moving with their hands on their heads. That began
(01:53):
what became several calls to child Protective Services. But this
is what did it when neighbors saw two of the
older children, ages fourteen and sixteen living locked in the
barn more like a shed, no heat or air, no
bed or bathroom.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
One word or emergency. I'm not and I talk about
that four more. LA.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
There's a family that we have been caught in CPS
con back from time who.
Speaker 6 (02:26):
Had to kid rocked in and out building.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
The timing was perfect, the parents were not at home.
Sheriff deputies came broke down the shed door. When testified
with opening the door was like I was a paul for.
Speaker 7 (02:39):
The lack of a better term. As soon as the
door was open, the heat from inside hit us and
the smell was it made.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
My eyes water.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Conditions in that funky barn, the deputy says, hardly appropriate.
Four children.
Speaker 7 (02:56):
There was a table in one chair, running water, no
circulating air, no bed, very the toilet where the children
was it looked like a hospital pan or like a
camping toilet.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Then there was a third child deputies found in the house.
Speaker 7 (03:17):
I don't believe there was any circulating air in the
house either. It was a very nice house. There was
no hardly furniture in it, very hot, very very empty.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Also taking the stand during the trial that had the
white parents and handcuffs, where the white neighbors who saw
the black children were not clean, groomed, cared for. The kids,
carried buckets of water back and forth, working outside in
all weather. Neighbors compared notes so.
Speaker 8 (03:46):
They'd be like, hey, I've not seen these kids change.
Have you seen these kids change? Nope, they were wearing
the same thing from yesterday that they were or they're
from five days ago that.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
They had on.
Speaker 8 (03:55):
So it was involving like, you know, you don't want
to be suspicious of people, but you are when you
start noticing those different details every day are the same thing.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
The charges stunned the town. The parents hit with human
trafficking never tried here before, also charges of abuse and
civil rights violations. The couple and the children moved from
Washington State and stuck out like a sore thumb to
document the horror. There was video since the parents for
a twenty four hour surveillance stuck a camera in that barn.
(04:28):
You see the children with their once daily meal of
peanut butter sandwiches, sleeping on the floor, standing with their
hands on their heads. It was a case that made
headline news and everybody was talking.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
This is a couple out of West Virginia who adopted
five black children. And this couple is being accused right
now of forcing those children to work as slaves.
Speaker 6 (04:57):
It is a case that is soa brutal and upsetting
that it is drawn national outrage. Jan Whitefeather and Donald Lance,
a white West Virginia couple, adopted five black children, but
not to love them, no to amuse them.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Jeanie Whitefeather and her husband, Donald Lance, adopted the five
children in twenty eighteen. The white couple claims one of
the older kids, a boy, had mental issues, which is
why he and his sister were in what White Feather
and her husband called the clubhouse.
Speaker 8 (05:29):
Did you lock your kids up in a barn?
Speaker 4 (05:31):
No?
Speaker 3 (05:31):
I did not. What about the classroom? Did you lock
them up in the classroom?
Speaker 8 (05:34):
I did?
Speaker 9 (05:35):
Note hours of video here.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Like they were locked in? Can you tell me they
were locked in? They weren't locked and they had a
key and they could come and go as they pleased.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Jeanie Whitefeather on the stand. Listen as she pushes back
against allegations she took a whip to the fourteen year
old boy with the mental issues.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Hey, I'm it's mommy.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
I mean they canness on me, but I don't.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
I will know read this on them. As far as
I'm concerned, They're my children. I love all my children.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
The older daughter called her a monster. Donald Lance, testifying
about the difficulty raising the boy with the issues, he
says he constantly wet his pants.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
You know.
Speaker 8 (06:19):
That old kids.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
You know my suspense. You know, it gets a little
bit frustrating because every time it takes time, you have
to getting cleaned up, changes clothes, and it's just it's
just frustrating.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
The cruel couple had texts with racial slurs about the kids.
Jeanie sprayed the children with bear spray. She tried her
best to clean up the damage, convinced the jury they
weren't doing it for the money. They really had the
best intentions.
Speaker 9 (06:53):
I just like the court to know that I have
made mistakes and I'm very sorry for that, and I
love my children.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
The verdict is in the jury find the defendant, Genie K.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Whitefeather, guilty be on a reasonable doubt of human trafficking of.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
A minor child.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
After listening to testimony for two weeks, the jury came
back guilty for her. There was the added guilty for
violating the civil rights of the children. The couple claimed
they just wanted to adopt one child, opting in the end,
not to break up the siblings and adopt them all.
In twenty eighteen, they say the children became too much
(07:30):
to handle. They moved from Washington State to West Virginia
in twenty twenty three. They needed a quiet place. The
prosecutor says, they thought a town in a ruby red
state would provide them racial cover.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
They bet the.
Speaker 7 (07:46):
People of West Virginia would not care if they mistrated
their black children right.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
Out in front of the world.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
White neighbors agree the adopted parents were wrong about that
we're not just.
Speaker 8 (07:57):
Red legs for Hicks. I know that doesn't watch out
for one another. The biggest thing about Western is we
all love one another, and we're going to notice when
you're doing something wrong, and we're gonna stick up for
those people.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Jeanie White father, clinging to the fantasy that she's a
good mother.
Speaker 9 (08:12):
I just like the court funael that I have made
mistakes and I'm very sorry for that, and I love
my children. I have never ever done anything to anyone
of my eight children.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
In weeks later, judgment day time for the sentence, Judge
Agres gets her say. Before handing down sentencing, she told
them what she really thinks of these so called loving parents.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Those of you.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Refuse to accept responsibility throughout the trial and still here today,
which makes my job around easier.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
And instead of apologizing today because you never have said
you're sorry for what you did do, was put on
one of the most reprehensible, narcissistic defenses that I have
ever seen for nine years of trial work. And may
God have mercy on your souls, because this court will not, and.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
The court did not for Genie Whitefeather two hundred and
fifteen years behind bars, and for Donald Lance one hundred
and sixty years in prison. The children, the three oldest
who testified about years of abuse neglect. They also gave
victim impact statements. One read she would be something in
life in spite of the White couple. Funny one of
(09:31):
the kids asked if they Genie Whitefeather and Donald Lance
could be made to stand with their hands on their heads. Ironically,
the judge says that would be cruel and unusual punishment.
The kids are thriving now living in foster care. Prosecutors
thank the neighbors for seeing something and saying something, but
it is the children who face their monsters who will
(09:53):
be remembered most.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
I can't imagine the courage it took for a child
to take this stand and testify against someone who, at
one point in their life.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
They considered amer.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
The couple, now sitting in prison, plans to appeal. I'm
Vanessa Tyler. Be sure to check back. A new episode
of black Land drops every week.
Host
Vanessa Tyler
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