ADDISON GRACE LANHAM -2yo- Bessemer City (W of Charlotte) NC

11 to 13 years for these POS people who let that poor baby suffer and die for weeks. They should have received life. What a crock.

And DSS--they were contacted plenty of times with info and if the extended family even told them that the POS mother was living with a sex offender, then why couldn't they go over there right away and take the child away. Something needs to be done about DSS. This is just awful.

Adjudicated.


Though not well.

Babyj, these court documents might rile you up further. They did me. Disgusting.

twinkletoes wrote:Babyj, these court documents might rile you up further. They did me. Disgusting.

Twink, my blood is boiling. There is some kind of BS going on in that report. When the POS mother admitted she was dating the sexual predator, they should have taken that baby then. Those idiots received plenty of reports of child abuse and "couldn't locate the mother." Sounds to me that they didn't try that hard. Why didn't they bring the police into it and let them help. It was obvious the mother was avoiding them.

Of course the d@mn mother is to blame ultimately. She should receive life in prison. She was willingly allowing her child to be abused. I just don't understand why these woman have babies only to allow them to be abused to death. And I never will. Every case is so sad and tragic. I keep thinking how we can help to stop this but there's no easy answer when parents hide and secretly abuse their kids.

Task forces investigating child deaths

February 14, 2012 5:58 PM





Addison Lanham, 2, died in July 2011.

The death of a Gaston County toddler will be reviewed by a state task force charged with investigating child fatalities.
Addison Grace Lanham died from neglect in July 2011.

When paramedics walked into the extended-stay motel in Bessemer City
where the child lived, they saw a 2-year-old girl covered in boils. Some
had burst, exposing her brain and skull.

Her leg was broken. She had been sexually assaulted and sodomized.
Her arm and back were bruised; her eyes swollen from infection.

The toddler’s mother, Shanna Lanham, pleaded guilty to second-degree
murder in the child’s death in December. Shanna Lanham’s sex offender
live-in boyfriend, Jason Wells, also pleaded guilty in the case.

Both are in prison now, but state health officials intend to investigate further into the child’s life and death.

Gaston County Department of Social Services had a file on the
Lanhams. Shanna Lanham didn’t want to be found by social workers. She
handed her first child over to be raised by another family, and she had
been investigated for allegations involving Addison.

Reports had been called in by friends and relatives regarding Lanham
living with a registered sex offender at America’s Best Inn and Suites.

Many speculated that Wells was sexually inappropriate with the child because of his prior conviction.

Addison was violated, but there was no DNA or biological evidence to identify a suspect, according to prosecutors.

Preventing future deaths

Any child who dies in Gaston and Lincoln counties doesn’t go
unnoticed. Local task forces review each death regardless of whether it
was a homicide or an accident and whether or not DSS was ever involved.

Members of Gaston’s child fatality protection team include: Alice
Ragan, retired from Gaston County Schools; Chris Hendricks, Gaston
Emergency Medical Services; Capt. Jay Human, Gaston County Police
Department; Cheryl Harris, Gaston Department of Social Services;
Detective Eric Wiggins, Gastonia Police Department; Dr. John Watts,
medical community; John Garland, Pathways; Kelsie Costner, Department of
Social Services; Susan C. Starcher, Gaston County Health Department;
and Susan Neeley, Gaston County Schools.

The local team met four times in 2011.

The team reviews each case and returns a report of its findings.

These findings are not made public. The only information that is
generally released to the public is in regards to what policies and
procedures might be changed or amended as a result of the investigation.

Its findings are submitted to the Department of Health and Human
Services and may take a year before showing up in a final report.

Investigations at the local and state level scrutinize the actions
and practices that led up to the child’s death. If any one particular
employee is found at fault, that person can face disciplinary action,
though it probably won’t be made public. In North Carolina, employee
records are kept confidential.

The primary purpose of the review is to prevent future child fatalities.

Child fatalities

Seven children died in Gaston County in 2011. Eight were reported in Lincoln County.

Of the seven deaths in Gaston County, five were active in the welfare
system, according to a report completed at the local level and
submitted to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

The three most reoccurring protection issues in Gaston County in 2011 were substance abuse, domestic violence and co-sleeping.

The two-page report did not specify how each child died.

Alternatively, Lincoln County’s child fatality prevention team report
includes four pages – listing each cause of death and breaking down
determining factors into percentages.

All but one of the Lincoln County child deaths in 2011 was a result
of a medical issue. The only exception was a 3-year-old boy who drowned.

Both the Gaston and Lincoln reports outline plans to improve programming and protection of children in 2012.

Gaston’s submission states:

“Grants are being applied for to enhance the community ability to be
proactive in prevention. If granted there will be an increase in
community collaboration to provide identified families an opportunity
for prevention services the grant will create. The hope is that there is
a reduction in abuse/neglect concerns.”

Special cases

The Department of Health and Human Services also has a child fatality prevention task force.

The task force does not review every child death. A list of criteria
is used to determine whose case will go under the microscope. Addison’s
case met those criteria.

The state review will be conducted to ensure DSS workers did all they could to keep Addison from harm.

Findings from the study should be available in an annual report.


http://www.gastongazette.com/articles/child-67447-investigating-task.html#ixzz1ms27fbXj

Written By ANONYMOUS
Have you ever met someone and within the first few moments of getting
to know them you knew you would eventually read about them doing
something heinous and disgusting? Some vibe about the person gave you
the total impression that they have the capability of committing an evil
act?

Meet Shanna Dawn Lanham and her pedophile piece of garbage boyfriend
Jason Michael Wells. These two ensured that Shanna’s beautiful 2 year
old Addison did not get to open presents under the tree this year, or
have a 3rd birthday. Addison will never go to school, ride a bicycle or
go to the prom. You see, Addison is dead. And no, she just didn’t die
peacefully in her sleep, she died a slow agonizing death drug out for
weeks , and was hidden from anyone to tried to stop her mother and new
boyfriend from having their fun at Addison’s expense.

Miss Shanna was only 13 years old, but already a lifelong drug
addiction to everything under the sun. While other teens thought they
were so racy as to take a sip of a wine cooler, Shanna had moved from
home by 14, and was snorting cocaine and in love with Ecstasy. By age 20
she was stripping to feed her habit and finding old men who would house
her until she robbed them blind.

Then, back out into the streets she would go, looking for love, drugs, and a good time.
She gave birth to a little boy five years ago, but never took the child
in as her own, according to court documents. A friend of the family
picked up the drug-addicted baby from the hospital and later adopted him
as her own.

Lanham was arrested several times on drug and larceny charges. She was branded a felon.

Out of jail and looking for love, she has a very short affair with
another drug addict, Raymond May. She quickly gets pregnant with a
beautiful daughter Addison. Raymond May, 36, is being held in the
Central Prision in Raleigh, NC with a dozen beautiful convictions. The
charges include promoting drug sales by a minor, trafficking heroin and
conspiring to sell and deliver cocaine, according to arrest records.
With Ray in jail, its time to look for a new boyfriend/dealer.

What does a drug addict mother to do all alone with a baby to raise?
Get a sex offender boyfriend of course! This was a gem of a man named
Jason Michael Wells. She was by his side when he stood trial for taking
indecent liberties with a minor.

Wells eventually took a plea of sexual battery and was required to
register as a sex offender. Wells inappropriately touched the
12-year-old girl on a chance encounter at a grocery store. Shanna stood
by his side and called all the charges lies! The trial was under way
when Wells agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge. But child
molesters don’t do a very good job paying for Coke, so its back to
stripping. Too bad for Shanna, working at strip clubs was not going to
work for Shanna anymore-the drugs were ruining her appearance to the
point where even the sleaziest club in town would not employ her. NOt
even the nasty ones want the girls with the Meth scabs on their faces.

When Wells started coming around and the woman Shanna was living with
learned that he was a registered sex offender, she told Lanham she
didn’t want the man around her three children .Lanham decided to move
out. She was urged to leave Addison with her, but the couple decided to
take the little girl with them.
Homeless once again, the couple decide to move in a pay-by-the-week
Hotel in Bessemer City, NC. Wells, took odd jobs roofing to pay the
weekly hotel rent. Lanham was a “Stay At Motel Mom”.

As the drug abuse got worse, and it looked as if the baby wasn’t
being fed. The child was no longer allowed to come out her hotel room.
Not even employees had seen Addison for weeks. Family members begged for
help. Even several members of the sex offender’s family stepped in ,
left several messages at the Gaston County Probation and Parole
Department in early June, saying they had saw her abusing drugs.
Since the family never received a return phone call, they reached out to
Shanna’s probation officer on Facebook, begging for help.On June 13,
wrote “I don’t know if that baby is eating. Shanna is strung out on
crack and Xanax. She is selling all her pills. Addison, her daughter,
doesn’t have any clothes and I’m not sure she is eating. I called DSS on
her and her cousin called the cops. Please help Addison.”

The social worker, who has stepped down from DSS because of
investigation into Addison’s death, asked for proof. Lanham’s cousin,
Stacey Drewery, said she called DSS twice in June and said she was
fearful for Addison’s safety. She also said she called police several
times.

“I actually called 911 and asked them what would happen if I took
Addison out of the hotel room, and they said I could be cited for
kidnapping, even though I knew she was being abused. And that’s gotta
change,” Drewery said.

A complaint of neglect against Lanham was filed in June. The basis of
the claim was because Wells, a convicted sex offender, was reportedly
living with the Lanham’s in a hotel. The couple also smoked marijuana
and did cocaine around the child, according to the report.

That claim dictated an in-home visit within 24 hours, according to Cheryl Harris, program administrator with Gaston DSS.

On June 9, two social workers visited Lanham at the Express Inn in Bessemer City where she and the child were living.

Lanham denied accusations that Wells was living there, but social
workers saw men’s clothes and shoes in the room. Lanham said that the
clothing belonged to her brother. The social workers reported “Addison
to be appropriately dressed, clean and no apparent well-being issues
were observed.”
Social workers told Lanham that Wells was not allowed to live with a child and that they planned to return in a week.

That second visit never happened.

In the weeks to follow, Lanham called DSS and said she and Addison
were taking a trip to the beach. She refused to give phone numbers and
addresses, saying her phone was broken and that she didn’t have the
address of where she was staying. Social workers returned to the hotel
where the Lanham’s had been living on two occasions. She had apparently
moved out.

Wells told social workers in July that he and Lanham had broken up.
Convicted of sexual battery in 2010, Wells was added to the sex offender
registry and therefore isn’t legally permitted to live with children.
Friends, family and prosecutors say that Lanham and Wells lied about
living together.

Lanham told social workers during her June 9 interview that she knew
about Wells’ criminal record, but that she didn’t know that meant he
couldn’t be around her child. Lanham said that she didn’t believe Wells
was guilty of the sex offense and that she planned to marry him right
away.

Both Lanham and Wells continually told social workers during follow
up phone calls that they were not living together, but police have
determined that Wells was living with the Lanham’s.

Wells was babysitting Addison the night she died. Wells, tried wake
little Addison up from a nap, but could not get her to stir. When the
child wouldn’t wake up, Wells called Lanham who returned to the
America’s Best Inn and Suites and ultimately called 911. Lanham called
911 that night from her room at America’s Best Hotel in Bessemer City,
frantically describing the injuries on her unresponsive child’s body.

She repeatedly tried to explain away the cuts to the toddler’s
private parts as injuries from falling in a bathtub. She would go from
uncontrollable sobs to quickly and soberly defending her boyfriend and
explaining away any signs of abuse of little Addison.

Link to 911 call is here: http://richmedia.onset.freedom.com/gaston/lp0fb8-addison911call.mp3

Addison died of sepsis, an infection that entered her blood stream
and overtook her body. She had bruises on her arm and back and a several
weeks old broken leg. She was swollen and covered in boils and had been
sexually assaulted and sodomized. Her arm and back were bruised; her
eyes swollen from infection. Little Addison was covered in boils
stemming from MRSA all over her body. Some had burst, exposing her
brain and skull. Her hair was falling out.

Again, she was 2 years old.

At trial, it was determined that Lanham and Wells made doctor’s
appointments for Addison, but they decided to cancel them and borrow
Tylenol from a neighbor in the hotel instead. Who knew Tylenol was such a
wonder drug it could heal sepsis, a broken leg, sexual assault, sodomy,
and hair loss!

Wells’ bags were packed and he was gone before police arrived. He was
picked up a short time later at a nearby gas station and charged with
failing to register as a sex offender.

Before being charged, Lanham went on the defensive and conducted several local news interviews which can be found here:

http://www.gastongazette.com/video/?videoId=1070855210001&lineupId=1155327132&play=now

Much of the account of the child’s death came not only from neighbors
but from Lanham and Wells. Each of the defendants offered details and
agreed to testify against the other. Funny how Shanna put her boyfriend
above her child’s life, but not over her precious hide!

Shanna Lanham took a plea for second degree murder-only nine years to
11½ years in prison. Then she is free to breed and kill again.

Jason Wells was sentenced to 10 years to 13 years in prison. His
conviction also includes baby-sitting for a child while being a sex
offender. His attorney, Cindy Letorney, asked that Wells be kept
separate from Addison’s biological father who is also incarcerated at
Central Prison in Raleigh. Hopefully, someone will forget about the last
part and make them roomies.

http://pysih.com/2012/03/31/jason-michael-wells-and-shanna-dawn-lanham/

These sentences are an abomination, Is it the fault of the prosecutor for under charging these criminals? Is it the fault of the judge or did he do the best he could? Apparently he did.

These two evil fiends should never walk the streets again. But they will. And breed again.

Something is wrong here and it needs to be fixed.



The system let this poor baby down during her short torturous life and the system let her down after her murder.

Something is wrong here and it needs to be fixed.