Lorrie Thomas starved daughter to death then hid body in storage container

Thu, Jan 14, 2010

Where does a person begin when writing about the death of a child so heinous. Shylae Thomas was unable to move all her limbs as she was a quadriplegic but surely she had emotions and feelings. How in the hell did a woman who had a total of 8 children in her home possibly think that she could take care of this child by herself? Relatives were apparently worried and called on Michigan’s DHS many times to express their concerns however we see the outcome that had. Shylae became a quadriplegic due to a crib accident when she was a young baby. So social workers started getting pushy wanting to know the status of Shylae at the behest of the families worry. Lorrie Thomas (her adoptive mother)claimed she was traveling with her and pulled her from school because the family was planning to move.

Relatives say they called Michigan’s department of human services many times to express their worry over 9-year-old Shylae Thomas, who’d been left a quadriplegic due to a crib accident as a 3-month old. Shylae’s mother is Rachel Thomas, Lorrie Thomas’s sister. Lorrie adopted Rachel’s daughter Shylae for the reasons that they felt appropriate. Rachel has shared some of those reasons with the press:

An autopsy determined that Shylae Thomas 9-yrs, weighed 33 pounds when she died.

Rachel does not, however, regret her decision to allow family members to step in to raise her severely mentally and physically disabled daughter.Rachel Thomas, 38, openly acknowledges her struggles, admitting that she drinks alcohol frequently and smokes marijuana occasionally. In the past, she said she turned to prostitution and theft to buy milk and food for her children. In an interview at her home on Flint’s northwest side, Thomas’ who has a thin frame talked about Shylae. At other times, she paced the rooms in bursts of energy (crackburst maybe? jus saying).

“I just want to hug my sister because I know in my heart Lorrie must have flipped out when she found Shylae dead,” Rachel Thomas said. “She loved my baby too much to throw my baby out like garbage.” (umm.. Thats exactly what she did…)

Shylae Thomas was wrapped in a garbage bag and weighed just 33 pounds when she died. Police found Shylae wrapped in a bag in a storage container near Flint. She’d been left there for six weeks, and weighed just 33 pounds. Detectives likened her body to that of a Holocaust victim. Her hair was matted and her bedsores were so bad they exposed her bones. Police concluded she’d basically been starved to death over the previous year and a half. Lorrie Thomas plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter. Through tears she told the court that “I am not a monster,” though the circumstances would beg to differ. She tried to blame Michigan for not offering enough assistance to care for the girl. But while social workers could be blamed for not heeding the warnings of relatives, starving a 9-year-old quadriplegic to death isn’t an act that comes equipped with excuses.

Lorrie Thomas received a 10-15yr sentence in the pen.

It seems to me that this child never had a chance from day she was brought into this earth.