How many years in prison was Shanda Vander Ark sentenced to for starving and torturing her son Timothy to death?

A mother’s love is supposed to be one of the purest forms of love in our world. However, once in a while, we come across stories that prove that not all mothers are built the same, and some don’t even deserve the title.

Shanda Vander Ark, 44, falls under this latter category. She, along with the help of another of her sons, Paul Ferguson, 20, routinely tortured her special needs child, Timothy Ferguson, 15. Timothy, at the time of his death, weighed 69 pounds. Not only was he starved, but he was routinely tortured – given bread with incredibly spicy hot sauce, left for hours in ice baths, and other unspeakable things – for months until his passing in their Michigan home.

“Mothers – not all – but most mothers have a strong love for their children.” Said Judge Matthew R. Kacel at the sentencing hearing, “And to see what you did to your own child… I don’t think there’s a word in the English language to describe it. The only I can come up with is ‘horrific’.”

A mother on YouTube wrote:

“My son [has] severe special needs and he is the BEST thing in my life. I cannot imagine people that treat their disabled kids this way. I live for my son.  He doesn’t even speak but he still makes me feel more loved than anyone or anything ever has. This mom needs to have a long sentence.”

Did she? Did Vander Ark’s sentence reflect the appalling treatment she’d given to the one she was supposed to protect?

A lifetime to ponder over her crimes

As someone with a law degree, and of relative intelligence, it’s not surprising that Shanda Vander Ark got a good defense that might’ve worked – were the facts of this case not of an undeniable, thoughtful, extended cruelty. It also helped that her attorney, Fred Johnson, was highly competent at his job and plausibly argued about Vander Ark’s intent – lack thereof – in his defense strategy.

Despite having lost the case, Johnson declared that “this is a great day,” as “the system worked” and justice was done.

Justice, for Vander Ark, means the rest of her natural life in prison. Due to the horrifying nature of the case, Judge Kacel thought it was warranted to exceed sentencing guidelines and add another 50 to 100 years for first-degree child abuse.

A photo of Timothy right before his death, was passed around by the jury, as the Judge deemed it too graphic to show everyone in the courtroom. We can only imagine the horrors this boy, by all means, wanted, as his two other older siblings’ impact statements proved, went through before drawing his last breath.

Hopefully, that image keeps burning in Vander Ark’s mind for the remainder of her perpetual stay in prison. While the rest who knew him, get to remember Timothy for the special child he was, recalling the smiling picture of the big blue-eyed boy that the Judge showed in court, rather than the victim his own mother unjustly, and tragically, forced him to be.