Police Say Pa. Woman Died After Abuse Dedicated By Her Father. Her Sisters Need Change

The sisters of a younger lady who, in response to police, died from abuse allegedly dedicated by their father and his girlfriend are looking for solutions.

Malinda Hoagland was 12 years outdated when she died in a hospital in Pennsylvania. She was emaciated, weighing simply 50 lbs., and had a number of damaged bones. 

Rendell Hoagland, Malinda’s father, and his girlfriend, Cindy Warren, have been charged with tried legal murder, kidnapping and several other different costs associated to his daughter’s demise, prosecutors stated on the time. It isn’t instantly clear if they’ve entered a plea to the costs.

Authorities beforehand stated an investigation uncovered that Malinda had been pulled out of college in late 2023. Police additionally stated they discovered movies on Warren’s cellphone exhibiting a shackled Malinda allegedly being berated by each defendants over a speaker system.

Prosecutors allege that Rendell and Warren punished Malinda by making her do “strenuous bodily train,” and typically denied her meals.

Warren, court docket information present, beforehand pleaded responsible to endangering her 3-year-old-child in a 2007 little one abuse case.

Malinda’s half-sisters Emily Lee, 28, and Jamie Hoagland, 23, inform PEOPLE they weren’t conscious of the situations their youthful sister was going through on the finish of her life.

“I used to be simply estranged from my father, ready for my sister to become older,” Lee says. “We had a relationship previous to my father’s relationship with Cindy, however I would not say that we knew something was happening. It is simply that we had been saved at nighttime.”

After Rendell started courting Warren, Lee says she Googled his new girlfriend and discovered about her authorized historical past.

“I had stated one thing to my dad like, ‘Hey, Dad, have you learnt what this lady has been accused of? Are you aware what she’s performed?,’” Lee remembers. “And we had been simply not supposed to speak about it.”

Lee says she was hopeful that Warren had modified, however when Rendell moved away and communication began dwindling, her concern for Malinda grew. 

Jamie Hoagland says she final noticed Malinda in Could 2023, after Rendell had begun courting Warren and moved to Chester County, greater than two hours away from the place she lives. Jamie was going to a contest that Rendell was entered in. When Malinda wasn’t on the competitors, although, Jamie demanded to see her.

“I confirmed up on the lodge with meals for all of them,” Jamie remembers. “[Malinda] was in a room that was 50 levels, so she was beneath blankets and sweatshirts. I did not actually suppose something of it.” 

Jamie says when Rendell and Warren left the room, she had a dialog with Malinda, who gave seemingly regular solutions, saying she was making associates at her new faculty.

“After which that is actually when [Rendell and Warren] got here again into the room and had been like, ‘We’ll mattress, you guys want to go away now,” Jamie says.

Months later, authorities say Malinda was pulled out of college.

Given Warren’s legal historical past, Lee and Jamie, who’re being represented by attorneys Alexandria Crouthamel and Tom Bosworth, consider that Youngster and Youth Providers ought to have visited the house the place Malinda was dwelling Rendell and Warren after she was taken out of college.

The sisters are at the moment engaged on establishing Malinda’s property, and Crouthamel tells PEOPLE that they’re making an attempt to uncover why extra crimson flags weren’t being raised by little one companies.

Whereas a lawsuit is feasible, for now Lee and Jamie’s attorneys are pushing for legislative change.

“We’re pushing for one thing known as Malinda’s Regulation, which is principally a registry for bodily offenders,” Crouthamel says. “So sure, there is a registry for intercourse offenders, as everyone knows, and everybody can look it up, most people jobs, everybody. However there’s nothing for bodily offenders. So the women want to have some form of registry or database to ascertain that.”

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Crouthamel says she and Bosworth have been involved with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro a few potential regulation in Malinda’s identify.

Malinda liked films and was very outgoing, in response to her sister, who bear in mind her as a “bubbly little one,” who “liked the world for what it was and liked being in it,” Lee says.

Lee and Jamie are nonetheless grieving within the months since Malinda’s demise, however they really feel compelled to inform her story.

“It by no means does get simpler to speak about it,” Jamie says. “Even a month, even a 12 months from now, it would not be straightforward to speak about it. However this topic is not straightforward, and if we do not have the braveness to speak about it, no person will. And this can return beneath the rug the place it started, and it could possibly’t return beneath the rug.”

In case you suspect little one abuse, name the Childhelp Nationwide Youngster Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Youngster or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is out there 24/7 in additional than 170 languages.