This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
There's been a stunning development in the horrific case in Wyoming alleging a mother tortured her teen son with beatings and by withholding food: The alleged victim's grandmother is accused of feeding the teen's young sibling laxatives to try to disrupt an FBI interview that was part of the investigation.
It is the Cowboy State Daily that documented the new allegation against Karen Jule Rider, 62, of Fremont County, who was taken into custody on the order of U.S. Magistrate Judge Teresa McKee.
The details were in a federal case made public in U.S. District Court for Wyoming by Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron J. Cook.
Court documents reveal Rider is the mother of Kandace Sitting Eagle, aka Kandace Van Fleet, who is scheduled for trial later this month on assault charges "for allegedly torturing her 13-year-old son in her home on the Wind River Indian Reservation," said the report.
When that case developed and Sitting Eagle was arrested Dec. 12, 2023, Sitting Eagle's other five children were placed in Rider's care.
The report noted, "In the hours or days after their mother’s arrest, three of the children, ages 4, 6 and 8, reportedly told investigators that their mother, Kandace Sitting Eagle, and her husband Truman Sitting Eagle had 'beat up' the teenage boy."
They told investigators at the time their brother was locked in his room and they described a lock on his bedroom door, according to court filings.
One confirmed food was withheld from the alleged victim, who was found by Bureau of Indian Affairs Officer Matt Lee injured and hungry, hiding in a crawl space under the family's home, the Cowboy State Daily said.
However, the affidavit confirms that months later, when the children were being interviewed in the U.S. attorney's office in preparation for the trial, they went silent.
"Each of the children were brought into the meeting individually, and when asked about something happening to their brother, the victim, each child effectively stated that they did not know or could not remember," an FBI affidavit from agent Adrianne Culver said.
The report explained, "One child got back into the lobby and met with his or her sibling. 'What did you tell them?' asked the sibling in the lobby, reportedly. 'Nothing,' answered the sibling who’d just been interviewed, the affidavit relates."
Then Sitting Eagle made a phone call, from jail, later to her mother, and, "Rider reportedly told Sitting Eagle that just before the FBI meeting, she gave the youngest child — who is now 5 — coffee, prune juice and chips because 'they make him go potty.'"
The report said, "Rider allegedly said she hoped the child would make a mess and be in the 'sh-----' at the U.S. attorney’s office…"
"Rider further stated that she told him if he said anything about his mom, they were not going to let her out of jail," the affidavit said. "She told the children not to talk to strangers, that the FBI were strangers, and it was not OK to talk to them."
