Warning: This article contains discussion of child abuse which some readers may find distressing.
A children’s book author and her husband have been exposed for leading a ‘double life’ and now face hefty criminal charges relating to child abuse.
Jennifer Wolfthal, from Florida, is known for her children’s books about friendship, acting as a doting caregiver and typical mom, and even having worked as a fourth grade teacher.
However, she has since been uncovered as a wicked abuser who will spend more than a decade behind bars.
Suspicions grew about the ‘A Real Friend’ novelist, 45, and her husband, Joseph Wolfthal, 43, who worked as an engineer for Lockhead Martin, after their eight-year-old adopted daughter was rushed to a hospital in Orlando on New Year’s Day 2021, unconscious and covered in injuries.
The young girl was found to be suffering kidney and liver failure, sepsis, a staph infection, open infected wounds on both her legs, and pneumonia, reports Law&Crime, with sores on her leg believed to have been infected and ruptured.
The youngster also had a chipped tooth, two black eyes, and weighed a mere 40 pounds.
Joseph reportedly blamed her severe injuries on falling and brushing her teeth ‘too hard’, but cops launched an investigation into the couple after determining the girl’s injuries were inconsistent with the alleged fall.
“Due to the height and weight of [the girl], it is not likely the swollen bruise on the back of her head and the laceration on her lip and broken tooth were caused by off balance falls”, the police report read, according to the New York Post.
The Wolfhals had also adopted two other youngsters, aged nine and 11, which investigators said showed signs of ‘malnourishment, bruises, and lack of care’ when they searched the family home.
Amid the house of horrors, police found the doorknobs on the children’s bedrooms had been installed backwards and could only be locked from the outside.
There were also 1,100 written paragraphs, with one such haunting note reading: “My body stays flat on the bed at all times. I was never given permission to move or say anything. Now I get to write about this along with everything else. I am a fool.”
The children also reportedly told officers that they were beaten with a ‘whacker’ and forced to exercise or write lines while they were fed a diet of just cereal and vegetable puree.
On January 13, the Wolfthals pleaded guilty to aggravated child abuse and neglect of a child with great bodily harm, according to plea agreements seen by Fox News Digital.
While Jennifer faces 12 years behind bars for child abuse, her husband will be sentenced to 10 years.
A spokesperson for the State Attorney’s Office in Florida’s 18th judicial circuit told Fox News Digital: “This plea and sentencing agreement ensures that the Wolfthals will spend significant time in prison while it protects the already-traumatized victims from the stress of having to testify.
“The State Attorney’s office made sure law enforcement and the children’s new guardian supported this sentence before it agreed to it.”
All three children have since been moved to safety with another family.
Meanwhile, Jennifer’s book is still available to buy on Amazon, but buyers have been flooding the page with poor reviews and references to her abuse.
Others claim they have complained to customer services to remove the book for sale.
Her publisher, Clavis Publishing, also denounced Wolfthal after her arrest, writing in a statement that ‘we will do what’s within our power to cease commercialization of her book’.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues or want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, the Childhelp USA National Child Abuse Hotline (1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453) operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and receives calls from throughout the United States, Canada, US Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico.
