Dad Chained Unconscious Girl to Hockey Table Before She Died: Police

A Pennsylvania father has been convicted. of killing his own daughter after. investigators say he tied her up, beat. her, and starved her for years before. her tiny [music] body finally gave out. Melinda Hogan reportedly weighed just 50. lbs when she was rushed to a hospital. for emergency surgery, [music] but she. didn't survive. We charged them with. first-degree murder, seconddegree. murder, thirdderee murder, kidnapping, and hundreds of related charges. Facing.

down 282. individual charges, Melinda's father. agreed to plead [music] guilty. And now. he's going to spend the rest of his life. in prison. And as his alleged accomplice. awaits her own trial, we are getting a. better idea of what [music] police say. happened inside this house of horror. >> I will tell you that it appears that. Melinda was reprogrammed. to accept abuse as part of her life. >> Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and. Crime. I'm Jesse Weber.

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annual plan. This is a case with facts. that are so disturbing it's kind of hard. to even believe. A 12-year-old girl, Pennsylvania girl named Melinda Hogan. underwent months and months of systemic. abuse before she died. And now her own. father's paying the price. We first told. you about Rendle Hogan and his fianceé. Cindy Warren when they were arrested in. West Kalan Township, Pennsylvania in. 2024. Melinda had died at a hospital. during surgery. And the injuries to her. small body made for a laundry list of.

painful and lifealtering injuries, and. the injuries to her small body made for. a laundry list of pain. And what a. probable cause affidavit calls a quote. clear timeline of the torture and abuse. of Melinda. Shockingly, they found a 12-year-old. girl who was broken and barely alive. Our investigation revealed that Randelle. Hogland and Cindy Warren subjected. Melinda to evil and torment that no.

child should ever have to endure. And. they did it for months. >> So Hogland and Warren were charged with. more than 250 counts each. We're talking. murder, kidnapping, torture. And I will. tell you this is a uh this is a tough. one, okay? This is not an easy one. There are a lot of really rough details. and abhorrent allegations. So I'm just. going to give you a warning right now. I. want you to take care when you're. watching or listening to this. But.

Chester County District Attorney Chris. Deborra Serb told reporters at a 2024. news conference that his office planned. to seek the death penalty against both. defendants. January 16, 2025, Hogland. appeared in court. He agreed to a plea. deal, and this is where he learned his. sentence. In a statement, the district. attorney's office said the plea was. negotiated with the blessing of. Melinda's family members, including. three adult sisters. I always think. that's very important in these kinds of. cases. You don't always see that. But. Judge Anarie Wheatcraft sentenced.

Hogland to life in prison without the. possibility of parole, plus 30 to 60. years. He's never going to get out. And. when asked if he wanted to speak during. that hearing, Hogan reportedly said that. he had quote nothing to say at this. time. That's according to a report from. a local outlet, The Morning Call. So, what do we do? We dug through hundreds. of pages of court documents and police. reports that are related to Hogan's case. to kind of get a sense of what exactly. Melinda had been dealing with, what. she'd been going through, and the. allegations that Warren is still facing. By the way, the extent of damage that.

was done to Melinda's body was. discovered by investigators on May 4th, 2024 when they say that Randall Hogland. called 911 at around 7:30 p.m. First. responders, they find Melinda. unconscious, unresponsive in the. backseat of Hogland's pickup truck. Hogland, Warren, Melinda, and Warren's. younger biological son had stayed at a. campground the night before. Couple. apparently told investigators that. Melinda had been riding her bike at. around 12:30 in the morning when she hit. a tree, but that she seemed to be okay,

was up walking, talking, playing with. the dog. They even claimed that she woke. up and ate breakfast with them the next. day. Thing is, detectives discovered. that none of that actually happened. Authorities determined that sometime. that night, something had happened to. Melinda to cause her to lose. consciousness, and it seemed she never. woke up again. 2 days after her death, a. forensic pathologist did an autopsy on. Melinda's body. And according to the. probable cause affidavit, quote, the. postmortem examination found evidence of. severe malnutrition and starvation. The. body appeared greatly underweight with.

sharply visible bones and total lack of. subcutaneous fat and internal fat around. organs. The autopsy found that Melinda's organs. had begun to atrophy from starvation. It's pretty sickening. Now, according to. the autopsy report, Melinda had internal. injuries on almost every single one of. her organs, as well as healing fractures. on her pelvis, lower back, right. forearm, both thigh bones. The report. also noted Melinda quote had an.

unremarkable medical history until. custody was granted to Hogan. So, police. say Hogland and his wife, they. separated. He was granted custody of. Melinda in 2020. And according to. prosecutors, Melinda's biological mom. had a lot of different health problems. and illnesses. And so she needed to be. in a care home for her own. So she. couldn't take care for Melinda. So she. was stuck with Rendle. And in 2020, Rendle Hogan met and started dating. Cindy Warren. They moved in together. And this was along with Warren's. biological son, who by the way was. younger than Melinda. They moved several.

times before finally setting in West. Callen. So, according to prosecutors, Hogan and Warren had a Blink home. security system with cameras that were. positioned all over the house so that. Warren could monitor Melinda while Hogan. worked. And reports noted that the. couple also used the camera speaker. system to yell at Melinda when they. weren't home or were in another room. Now, the probable cause statement says. that when investigators asked Hogland. about all these cameras, you know what. he said? He apparently said, "Oh, installed them after Melinda quote stole.

a KitKat, you know, the candy bar from. his and Warren's bedroom." That's what. justified it. Those cameras created a. huge catalog of videos showing the. couple's horrific treatment of the. 12-year-old. This included chaining her. to furniture, forcing her to stand or. run in place for hours, physically. assaulting her. And in addition to that. critical digital evidence, police were. able to match the timestamps from the. security cameras to messages between. Hogan and Warren as well as internet. searches. And police say Warren had.

deleted those messages before turning. her phone over to them, but they were. recovered. Can't really get rid of them. as much as people try. And what you had. were beatings and other apparent. assaults seen on the videos. They lined. up with Melinda's long and unexplained. absences from school. This is according. to investigators. You know, the DA. talked about what a large task force had. figured out at a second news conference. in July of 2024. Take a listen. >> And so to my left and in the packets is. a timeline of abuse.

We are able to determine through text. messages that the first instance that we. can say right now is that in November of. 2021 that that was the first instance in. which we have some sort of recording. that the defendants caused a physical. injury to Melinda. Coincidentally, that was also the same. month that she was last seen by a. pediatrician. At that visit in November of 2021, she.

weighed 77 pounds. And we could not fit enough bullets to. make this legible, but we've chosen some. of the low lightss from the defendants's. abuse in one page. What is detailed. across are dozens of pages of a of. information in the affidavit of probable. cause. Melinda. experienced torture that was. progressively ratcheted up over time.

She was removed from school in December. of 2023. She was still excelling at cyber school. in March of 2024. And in May and on May 4th, we have a detailed timeline of what. these defendants knew and how they. failed to provide her medical care as. demonstrated by their own text messages. and their own phones and phone searches.

>> So before we dive further into the. probable cause statement, I just want to. tell you a little bit more about Hogland. and Warren for you. So Hogland, who was. 52 when he was arrested, apparently had. law enforcement and first responder jobs. in his work history. Yeah. He was an. elected state constable from 2004 to. 2010, which is a a peace officer. position, which would have included like. delivering a summon or transporting. inmates, serving arrest warrants. And. according to police, Hogland admitted. during an interview that the shackles.

that Melinda was forced to wear, those. were from his time as a constable. He. also apparently had done some work as a. volunteer firefighter. And at the time. of Melinda's death, he worked as a. welder. Now, Warren, on the other hand, didn't work. Instead, she served as a. caretaker. Caretaker for the children at. home. Again, big air quotes on. caretaker. Our investigation has. revealed that Cindy Warren's um. biological son, a younger son, was. living in that house. And actually some. of the evidence reviewed showed that.

when she would uh get up to go do. something else in another room and was. trying to record Melinda that she would. have her son do the recording for her. Um he there's no indication that he was. abused by all accounts. He was treated. well in that house. >> And how old is he? >> Um I don't know. I'm not in a position. to want to describe his his age at this. point because he is a [clears throat]. juvenile. But I will say that he is. younger than Melinda. And it seems from. police reports that Warren treated her. biological son very well. The social.

media pages of both defendants reflects. that, often showing off selfies with. him, posting about his achievements. Very different when it came to Melinda. There were very few photos of Melinda. Although I will tell you, we found a. chilling post from July 4th, 2023, where. Hogland says, "Happy 12th birthday, Melinda. Hope you have many, many more. We love you." Now, Warren's criminal. history, especially relating to the. abuse and death of at least one child, is critical in this case because. according to the probable cause. statement in December of 2000, Warren.

and her then husband, McKinley Warren, took their 2-year-old daughter to the. hospital. You see, this little girl. evidently had hemorrhages in her brain. and bruises all over her body. She. didn't survive. And at the time, the. family was being monitored for what's. called failure to thrive. But the Warren. apparently had another baby after that. And in 2007, a neighbor reported that. Warren's four-year-old son was covered. in bruises. Police determined that he'd. been starved. He'd been beaten, forced. to exercise. Does all this sound very. familiar? So, Cindy Warren ended up.

pleading guilty to endangering the. welfare of her child. She received the. maximum prison sentence, 7 years, and. McKinley Warren got a sentence of 25 to. 50 years. And according to police, Hogland knew all about it. Quote, "Hogland admitted that he was aware of. Warren's prior history with law. enforcement and child welfare and yet. felt it was a good idea for her to be. around Melinda." In fact, Warren's. criminal history was explicitly. mentioned in the custody agreement. By. the way, quote, interviews, court.

records, and correspondence recovered. show that Hogan and Warren actively. pursued sole custody of Melinda as her. biological mother, Ronda Smith, became. incapacitated and unable to care for. Melinda due to her multiple significant. health conditions. The Court of Common. Please in Monroe County entered a. finalized custody agreement on July. 30th, 2020, granting primary physical. custody of Melinda to Hogland. And I got. to mention this as well, the language of. the agreement, it addressed the terms of.

Warren's involvement with specificity, stating, "The minor shall not be left in. the care of Warren, father's fiance, for. any period of time exceeding 1 hour. unless expressly agreed upon by mother. and father through written. communication. From each year that. passes from the date of this. stipulation, Warren shall be permitted. an additional two hours in which she. shall be permitted to supervise the. minor child without another individual. present." But Hogan and Warren just. ignored that completely, moved in. together. The earliest instances of. abuse being referenced in messages as.

well as on camera, according to police, was in 2021. And reading from the. probable cause statement, quote, Melinda. was subjected to extended periods of. physical punishment, including running. in place while shackled to furniture, holding books or arms overhead, push-ups, jump squats, forced running. and biking, and extended periods of. stress positions. Melinda spent hours in. these physical punishments. Hogland and. Warren forced Melinda to do chores while. shackled and deprived of the ability to. use the bathroom freely. Warren and. Hogan used forced cold or scalding.

showers as punishment. Melinda. frequently slept on the floor, chained. to the air hockey table. The timestamps. on the videos recovered along with text. conversations indicate that Melinda was. regularly sleepdeprived and forced to. complete physical punishments as Warren. and Hogland slept. Oh, isn't that nice? quote, "In at least one instance, Warren. degraded and humiliated Melinda by. making her dance on camera while Warren. mocked her." Up until 2023, Melinda was. still attending school. Although, I will.

tell you, she switched schools and. districts a few times as the family. moved around. And you had court. documents say teachers describe Melinda. Hogan as an outgoing child, an excellent. student. She maintained well above. average grades, and had no reported. disciplinary issues. School records and. text show that in the months leading to. her death, Melinda had difficulty coming. up with life events to share with the. class about weekends and holidays. In. the records received by CISD, handwritten thank you notes were also. received. And Melinda thanked the. cafeteria staff for giving her food and.

being so nice to her. In all the. interviews and records received, Warren. and Hogan were the only people who ever. identified problems with Melinda's. behavior. Man, makes you wonder what. exactly they were saying. But I mean, how heartbreaking is this? You see a. girl who ostensibly was trying to just. thank people for being nice to her. because what was going on at home, right? And you think about the promise. of what her young life was. It's just. horrifying on so many levels. Now, eventually, after multiple unexplained. absences from school, and with Hogland.

and Warren apparently having to do a lot. more work to try to hide Melinda's. injuries and avoid detection, according. to their text messages, they pulled her. and enrolled her in Commonwealth Charter. Academy. it's a cyber school that she. took classes via Zoom while just. offscreen her leg was shackled to a. piece of furniture. According to. investigators, Warren would watch. Melinda nitpicking on how Melinda was. behaving, telling her she had to smile. and seem happy. The affidavit even. alleges that Warren was recorded on the. home security system telling Melinda to. turn off her laptop camera so that.

Warren could hit her. The affidavit also. says Hogan can be seen in the video. seated next to Melinda and holding a. belt, appearing ready to strike Melinda. while Melinda attends online classes. So. Melinda was reportedly beaten with. belts, metal spatulas, phone chargers, electrical cords. There were locks on. the refrigerator and cabinets. Hogland. apparently tried to tell detectives that. it was just a snack cabinet that was. locked. That wasn't true. family often. ordered takeout or delivery, according.

to investigators. But the text messages. and the receipts showed they got food. for just three people, not four. When. Melinda was given food, Warren allegedly. made it intentionally gross or foul. tasting. Again, you can see why she was. thanking the cafeteria. And Warren also. allegedly only spoke to Melinda when she. was punishing her and pretty much. ignored her the rest of the time. She. sent thousands of texts to Hogland. complaining about the 12-year-old. Probable cause statement says, quote, messages sent by Warren to Hogland on. December 8th, 2023 read, "I think you.

should come home and deal with your kid. Yo, I swear on God, I'mma choke this b-. word out on God." Quote, "In total, hundreds of videos were recovered. depicting the abuse of Melinda by. Hogland Warren." Over 150 videos and. still images were recovered depicting. Melinda's shackled to furniture and. enduring physical abuse. Over 200 videos. and images depict Melinda being. subjected to forced exercise or physical. punishment. Text messages and. conversations captured on video. establish that Melinda was punished for.

infractions like forgetting chores or. paperwork for school, stealing food, not. smiling during school Zoom sessions, sitting or failing to hold positions. when forced, inability to continue with. forced exercise, urinating or defecating. herself while restrained or asking. questions at school. So, I want to drill. down to the days leading up to Melinda's. death. April 29th, so less than a week. before she died, there was a camera that. recorded just a heartbreaking scene. Quote, "An additional Blink video from.

around noon on the same date, captured. Melinda sitting at the desk in her. bedroom with her computer off, communicating with Warren via the Blink. camera, begging, I shouldn't live. I'm. sorry. Please respond." And quote, "I'm. not going to act stupid. I'm not going. to make you mad. I know I ruined. everything. Please allow me to change. it. You know, during a forensic. interview with Warren's son, investigators learned a little bit more. about what happened at that campground. Quote, "The son reported that Melinda. did not eat dinner while they were at.

the campground because she lied to. Warren." The son reported that Warren. was mad at Melinda for lying and that. Melinda does not eat a lot because she. lies a lot. Lies a lot. The son stated. that when Melinda lies, she gets beaten. sometimes and that Hogan is the one who. beats her, often using a black belt. He. said she gets beat everywhere. The son. reported that Melinda says stop and. pretends to cry. The son said he knew. Melinda was pretending because Warren. told him Melinda was pretending. Or.

maybe she was actually crying. And by. the way, he also told detectives that he. didn't actually see Melinda hit a tree. while riding her bike. remember that's. what his mom had apparently told. investigators what happened. Now, in. reality, forensic specialists were able. to track Hogland from May 3rd into May. 4th via GPS on his phone and his own. cameras, which showed Hogland took. Melinda back to the house from the. campground, chained her unconscious body. to the air hockey table, left her there, and Morren apparently was looking at her. remotely at one point texting Hogland.

that Melinda quote moved and made a. noise. And when they all got home and. Melinda was still unconscious, the. couple made some very damning internet. searches, including hospitals near me, where can I buy smelling salts, ammonia. sticks, CVS? Can someone be knocked out. for hours? So, they eventually made the. decision to call 911, and trauma. surgeons tried to do what they could to. repair her unimaginable injuries, but. they just couldn't. Police consulted. with a board-certified child abuse.

pediatrician, Dr. Stephanie and Deutsch. to determine how severe the charges. against Hogan and Warren should be. And. Dr. Deutsch is an expert in the field of. child torture. The affidavit says Dr. Deutsch found that Melinda experienced. particularly cruel, callous, psychological mistreatment by Warren and. Hogland for years. She was the target of. frequent taunts, berating, and. derogatory name calling. Humiliated, forced to position, hold while scantily. clad, forced to dance the chaa, shamed.

over urinary incontinence, incessantly. degraded about her intelligence and. school performance, threatened with. injury, including possible beatings, broken bones and choking, and even. death. Deutsch noted the corroborated. video footage depicting the profound. emotional distress and psychological. injury Melinda experienced because of. her torture, including tearful desperate. pleas by Melinda to Warren to just give. her another chance in the days before. her death. The psychological impact on.

Melinda of Warren and Hogland's torture. is a crucial element of the type of. abuse endured by Melinda, which meets. all aspects of the medical definition of. torture. Dr. Deutsch noted that Hogland. and Warren paid little attention to the. gravity of Melinda's physical condition. Melinda experienced presumed cardiac. arrest at home with possible observation. appreciation of agonal respirations. But. Hogland and Warren failed to seek. medical intervention for more than 12. hours. Video footage continues to support the. malicious treatment of Melinda by.

Warren, even while Melinda lay dying. after being shackled to the air hockey. table by Hogland while Warren berates. her. So, as I mentioned, the judge. accepted Randall Hogland's guilty plea, sentenced him to life in prison without. the possibility of parole. Cindy Warren. still in jail. She awaits trial. It's. been pushed back several times, but for. the moment, scheduled to start June 8th. And during his news conference back in. 2024, the district attorney addressed. questions about the possible culpability. of state agencies here, whether anything.

could have been done to prevent. Melinda's abuse and eventual murder. Take a look. What in the world could we have done to. prevent this? It's it's really difficult for me to be. able to say in this case because on one. hand when you read what we've chronicled. in the affidavit of probable cause, you have to feel like we do that there. has to be something that we could have. done that we could have done better for.

Melinda. But. I want to say that part of the reason. I'm here and why this is such a critical. press conference to me is we are dealing. with the unimaginable. And I think it's. important for school districts, law. enforcement, CYFS across the state and. across the country to see what happened. here. Because although it doesn't get a. ton of press, this does happen on.

exceedingly rare occasions in different. parts of the country. And it's time that. we all go back and look at our processes. and make sure that we are doing. everything we can. to help our children to make sure that. they're not being subjected to this. But on the other hand, I want to make. something perfectly clear. We are here because there is evil in.

this world. We all like to I think at times forget. about that simple fact. And sometimes no. matter what everyone does, no matter how. much we try, evil. harms innocent people, even innocent. children. And so we are here today because.

of what these defendants did. and for no other real reason. because we've reviewed scores of school. records. We restored all kinds of. records here in this case. And the. evidence shows here that teachers, school districts, whether they were. cyber school or in school, like inerson. school, they cared about Melinda. They. checked in with her. She was. reprogrammed.

and they did that the best that they. could with the evidence that they had. There is no investigation into any. agency for failing to act in this case. This is not a case where abuse was. actually reported and no one did. anything. >> But Melinda's three older adult sisters. who say they weren't allowed to see her. for years, they don't agree with that. assessment. They have filed a civil. lawsuit. And while at first the. defendants they're suing, including. multiple school and school districts and. counties and their county children.

services agencies, as well as individual. employees, the suit has now been. whittleled down to just three. You have. Chester County and two directors of. Chester County Children, Youth, and. Family Services. But the sisters claimed. that officials knew that Melinda was. living with a convicted child abuser, and they didn't do anything about it. The lawsuit says the defendants failed. to adequately train their agents and. employees on the proper and legal means. and methods of reporting and. investigating suspected child abuse and. neglect, proper and legal means and. methods of child placement, oversight of. children during custody litigation, and. supervision of children living in homes.

with known or convicted child abusers. That litigation is ongoing. We'll. continue to keep a careful eye on what. happens next. And that's all we have for. you right now here on Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so much for joining. us. And as always, please subscribe on. YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast. You can. also check us out on NBC's [music]. Peacock as well. Sidebar is up there. If. you want to follow me, you can check me. out on X or Instagram or my NewsNation. show, Jesse Weber Live. I'll see you. next time, everybody.