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Children's book author and engineer husband exposed for double life in house of horrors

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A Florida children’s author – known for penning stories about friendship – was charged alongside her husband for abusing and neglecting their adopted children, authorities said.

Jennifer Wolfthal, the author of “A Real Friend,” and her husband, Joseph Wolfthal, an engineer for Lockheed Martin, pleaded guilty on Jan. 13 to aggravated child abuse and neglect of a child with great bodily harm, according to plea agreements obtained by Fox News Digital.

Jennifer Wolfthal will be sentenced to 12 years in prison, while her husband will be sentenced to 10 years behind bars, according to the plea agreement.

“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,” a spokesperson for the State Attorney’s Office in Florida’s 18th judicial circuit said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “The State Attorney’s office made sure law enforcement and the children’s new guardian supported this sentence before it agreed to it.”

AUTHOR OF CHILDREN’S BOOK AND HUSBAND CHARGED WITH ABUSING THEIR OWN KIDS

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Joseph and Jennifer Wolfthal pleaded guilty to aggravated child abuse and neglect of a child with great bodily harm on Jan. 13. (Seminole County Sheriff’s Office)

The investigation into the couple was launched in 2021 after their then 8-year-old adopted daughter was brought to the hospital with organ failure, unconscious and covered in injuries. The couple also had two other adopted children – a 9-year-old and 11-year-old. 

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“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 reads.

READ JENNIFER WOLFTHAL’S PLEA AGREEMENT: APP USERS CLICK HERE

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READ JOSEPH WOLFTHAL’S PLEA AGREEMENT: APP USERS CLICK HERE

While the girl was in the hospital, investigators visited the family home and said they found two other children with “symptoms of malnourishment, bruises and lack of care.”

GEORGIA COUPLE ACCUSED OF SEXUALLY ABUSING ADOPTED BOYS, HUSBAND BRAGGED ABOUT MOLESTING SON: REPORT

Police said the children’s bedrooms had their doorknobs installed backwards, with the locks on the outside.

During additional searches of the home, authorities found more than 1,100 written paragraphs 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.”

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Jennifer Wolfthal, the author of a children’s book titled “A Real Friend,” is set to be sentenced to 12 years in prison. Her husband faces a 10-year sentence. (Amazon.com)

The book is still for sale on Amazon, but reviewers have been filling the comments with links to news articles about the allegations against the author.

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Authorities also shared that all three of the Wolfthals’ adopted children were subject to other horrifying tales of abuse. Following the investigation, the children were moved to live with another family.

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Fox News Digital’s Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.



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Southeast

Florida teens in custody after 14-year-old girl found shot to death, burnt: sheriff

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Florida teens in custody after 14-year-old girl found shot to death, burnt: sheriff

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Two teen boys in Florida are accused of fatally shooting a 14-year-old girl and setting her on fire along a wooded walking trail last week in what authorities are calling a “horrific” killing.

Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson told reporters Thursday that the body has been identified as Danika Troy. He said Danika’s mother reported her as a runaway on Monday.

“Unbeknownst to the mother, Danika was murdered the previous night,” Johnson said.

A passerby discovered Danika’s body along a wooded area off Kimberly Road in Pace, a town about 16 miles northeast of Pensacola, and called 911, Johnson said.

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MIGRANT TEENAGERS CHARGED IN FATAL STABBING OF HOMELESS MAN IN CHICAGO

Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson told reporters that the suspects were supposedly friends with the victim from school. He said investigators were still working to determine a motive. (Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office)

Investigators quickly identified the suspects as 14-year-old Kimahri Blevins and 16-year-old Gabriel Williams and took them into custody.

“This is where it gets really horrific,” Johnson said.

Kimahri Blevins, 14, is facing premeditated first-degree murder charges. Authorities are seeking to charge him as an adult. (Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office)

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Williams allegedly stole his mother’s handgun and shot Danika.

“It’s bad enough you kill a 14-year-old. You’re 14. You’re 16,” Johnson said. “Shoot her multiple times, and then they set her on fire.”

Gabriel Williams, 16, is facing premeditated first-degree murder charges. Authorities are seeking to charge him as an adult. (Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office)

Johnson said investigators are still working to determine a motive.

“They have been interviewed, but the motive that they’re giving doesn’t fit the forensics or any facts of the case, so we don’t have a legit motive,” he told reporters.

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TEEN ARRESTED FOR MURDER IN SHOOTING OF 11-YEAR-OLD BOY IN NEW YORK: ‘AN UNIMAGINABLE TRAGEDY’

Blevins and Williams supposedly knew the victim from school, according to Johnson. He believed the two teens have had previous “run-ins” with law enforcement, though he could not immediately say if they had earlier arrests.

Blevins and Williams are being held at the Department of Juvenile Justice on premeditated first-degree murder charges. 

“You don’t want to go out and see a burnt child with bullet holes,” Johnson said. “That’s not something you sign up for.”

Johnson said no parents have been charged at this time, though investigators are “looking into it.”

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The sheriff’s office is working with the State Attorney to charge both teens as adults.

“If you do an adult crime, you gotta do adult time,” Johnson said.

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Florida college student who allegedly shipped 1,500 rounds of ammo to dorm had AR-15 under bed

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Florida college student who allegedly shipped 1,500 rounds of ammo to dorm had AR-15 under bed

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A Florida college student who allegedly ordered 1,500 rounds of ammunition to his dorm room also had a semi-automatic rifle under his bed, according to authorities.

Constantine Demetriades, a 21-year-old senior at Rollins College, was arrested by Winter Park police on Wednesday and charged with possession of a weapon on school property after the ammunition order was reported to police by the school’s assistant campus safety director, according to an arrest affidavit, WKMG reported.

After the purchase was flagged, the assistant safety director searched Demetriades’ dorm and allegedly discovered an unloaded AR-15 under his bed inside an unsecured black carrying case with one loaded magazine and five empty magazines, as well as a tactical vest, knives, a black security vest and ear protection.

FLORIDA OFFICER SHOT IN FACE DURING SERVICE CALL TIED TO MENTAL HEALTH DISPUTE; SUSPECT KILLED

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Constantine Demetriades, 21, was charged with possession of a weapon on school property. (Winter Park Police Department)

Demetriades, who said he likes to shoot as a hobby, told police he had the rifle on school property because he had recently returned from a Thanksgiving trip to New Jersey, where he said the guns were purchased and registered legally, according to the affidavit.

He said he did not have ill intentions and that he usually stores the firearm at a friend’s home off school property, the affidavit stated. He also said he only brought the gun to campus on one other occasion.

Constantine Demetriades said he did not have ill intentions. (Getty Images)

While Florida allows open carry, Rollins College bans all weapons on campus. Demetriades allegedly said he is aware that weapons are not allowed on campus and that his New Jersey concealed carry permit does not apply in Florida.

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The college said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital that he is banned from campus until the situation is resolved, adding that an internal investigation has been opened.

FLORIDA MAN ARRESTED IN WEALTHY BEACH TOWN OVER ALLEGED TIKTOK SCHOOL-SHOOTING THREAT

While Florida allows open carry, Rollins College bans all weapons on campus. (Getty Images)

“On Wednesday, the College received a report indicating a violation of our weapons policy,” Rollins College said in a statement. “After receiving this information, we immediately initiated an investigation.”

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“We quickly identified and contacted the student, who cooperated fully with College officials and local law enforcement as we investigated the matter further,” the statement continued. “The student was arrested and is not permitted to be on campus while the College proceeds with the student conduct process.”

The school said Demetriades was additionally charged with a violation of the college’s weapons policy, and will go through the on-campus conduct process.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene spars with ’60 Minutes’ host over ‘accusatory’ questions

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Marjorie Taylor Greene spars with ’60 Minutes’ host over ‘accusatory’ questions

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., briefly sparred with “60 Minutes” host Lesley Stahl over what she claimed was “accusatory” behavior from the journalist.

Greene gave her first sit-down interview with Stahl since announcing her resignation from Congress last month. During the segment, Stahl and Greene spoke about the Georgia lawmaker’s apology for taking part in “toxic politics.”

“I would like to say humbly, I‘m sorry for taking part in the toxic politics,” Greene told CNN in November. “It’s very bad for our country, and it’s been something I’ve thought about a lot, especially since Charlie Kirk was assassinated, is that we, I’m only responsible for myself and my own words and actions, and I am committed, and I’ve been working on this a lot lately to put down the knives in politics.”

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE TO APPEAR ON ’60 MINUTES’ AHEAD OF EXIT FROM CONGRESS

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., gave her first sit-down interview with “60 Minutes” since announcing her resignation. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

“But you contributed to that,” Stahl asked Greene Sunday. “You. You, you were out there pounding, insulting people.”

Greene pushed back, claiming that Stahl had contributed to toxic politics herself.

“You’re accusatory, just like you did just then,” Greene said.

“I know you’re accusing me, but I’m smiling,” Stahl responded.

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“You’re accusing me,” Greene said. “But we don’t have to accuse one another.”

The two continued to go back and forth, with Greene repeatedly insisting that Stahl should also acknowledge her own contribution to toxic politics.

“I don’t insult people,” Stahl said.

TRUMP SAYS HE’D ‘LOVE TO SEE’ GREENE RETURN TO POLITICS DESPITE RECENT ATTACKS

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., previously apologized for her role in “toxic” politics. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

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“You just, you do in the way you question,” Greene said. “And you are, you’re accusing me right now.”

Fox News Digital reached out to CBS News for comment. 

Greene previously sat down with Stahl in April 2023, when the two had a fiery exchange over the congresswoman’s claim that Democrats are the “party of pedophiles.”

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE SAYS SHE HOPES TO ‘MAKE UP’ WITH TRUMP AMID ONGOING FEUD

“They are not pedophiles. Why would you say that?” Stahl exclaimed.

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“Democrats support — even Joe Biden, the president himself — supports children being sexualized and having transgender surgeries. Sexualizing children is what pedophiles do to children,” Greene said.

“Wow,” Stahl reacted.

“60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl had a tense exchange with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., over her claim that Democrats were the “party of pedophiles” during an April 2023 interview. (Screenshots/CBS News)

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Greene shocked the political landscape last month when she revealed she would leave Congress Jan. 5. Many believe her abrupt exit was the result of her soured relationship with President Donald Trump.

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Fox News’ Joseph Wulfsohn contributed to this report.

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