Eleven-year-old Roman Lopez disappeared in January 2020, and detectives who got here to his household’s Placerville, California, dwelling after he was reported lacking in the end discovered him curled up in a 55-gallon storage bin, his 42-pound physique dressed solely in a diaper, a trickle of blood coming from his nostril. It was later decided the boy had been poisoned with desk salt; hypernatremia, or extra sodium within the blood, may cause seizures and delirium earlier than turning deadly. His father and stepmother had been arrested, and are actually each serving time on fees of second-degree homicide (his stepmother pleaded no contest; his father pleaded responsible)—and the story behind the little boy’s homicide, as recounted by the Washington Publish, is devastating to ponder.
Roman was seven years outdated when his eventual stepmother, Lindsay Piper, got here into his father’s life. She had 4 children of her personal, and by the point Roman died, three different kids had additionally been positioned within the household’s care by a struggling pal. The Publish’s story concerning the case is a part of its collection on homeschooling, and the piece appears to be like on the lax regulation on homeschooling in Michigan, the place the Piper household lived till a number of months earlier than Roman’s homicide. Lindsay Piper claimed to be homeschooling the eight kids in her dwelling, however the Publish spoke to different kids who lived in the home they usually say their days had been spent sleeping, preventing, and taking part in video video games whereas Piper stayed in mattress watching TV—or tortured and abused Roman. The complete, terrible story is on the Publish. (Learn extra Longform tales.)