© No Greater Joy Ministries
When 13-year-old Hana Grace Rose Williams died, she was found naked, face down in the mud in the backyard, in 42 degree weather.
Charging documents in the murder case against her adoptive parents show Hana was the victim of on-going abuse and neglect, a corporal punishment style of parenting straight out of a book sold on Amazon.com. The book is titled To Train Up A Child.
A family friend told detectives that Hana's mother, Carri Williams, gave her the book during a visit to the family's home. It's written by Michael Pearl, an Amish fundamentalist preacher in Tennessee, who encourages parents to go to extreme measures to discipline their children.
In the book, Pearl explains how to use a plumbing tool to switch children starting at age one. Pearl advocates giving cold water baths when potty training, putting children outside in cold weather and having them miss meals, all examples of abuse investigators said Hana endured.
"It teaches children through fear and so it perpetuates criminal punishment of children. That's not something we advocate," said Chris Jamieson with the Washington Commission on Children and Families.
To Train Up a Child is linked to the deaths of at least two other adoptive children, four-year-old Sean Paddock of North Carolina, and seven year-old Lydia Schatz of California. In both these cases, police said these punishment techniques were used.
"It's the most incredibly sad thing in the world that you've lost a child. In so many cases, if they can intervene in time, a case like this wouldn't have to happen," said Jamieson.
Carri and Larry Williams are being held at the Skagit County Jail on $500,000 bail each. Their next court appearance is scheduled for October 6.
Michael Pearl - the author of the book - should be charged with murder.