A 44-year-old woman from Michigan was sentenced for the death of her autistic son, who, after a series of tortures she imposed on him, left him to die of hunger.

As soon as the judges showed Shanda Vander Ark the picture of her dismembered 15-year-old son, she threw up in the courtroom.

She said in her testimony in court that she had given 15-year-old Timothy Ferguson a warm bath – something her eldest son did not confirm – shortly before he was found dead in July 2022 inside a wardrobe she had forced him to sleep in, wrapped in a sheet. The autopsy showed that the 15-year-old – who weighed just 31 kg – died of starvation and hypothermia.

“Is that what he looked like when you put him in the tub?” asked prosecutor Matt Roberts, showing her several photos of Timothy’s bruised and boneless body. Then as soon as Vander Ark saw the pictures she leaned behind the bench and threw up.

“I’m sorry,” she starts to say, then breaks down into sobs. The judge was then forced to vacate the courtroom.

Vander Ark did not return to the courtroom when the jury returned the verdict for her guilt of murder and child abuse. In less than an hour the jury asked for a life sentence. The decision will be made on January 29.

Vander Ark’s attorney, Fred Johnson, argued that his client did not understand the harm she caused her son and did not know he was starving to death.

The torture they inflicted on the 15-year-old

The eldest son of the Paul Ferguson family he said his mother was lying and that shortly before she died she bathed him in cold water, leaving him in the tub for at least four hours.

The cold bath was one of the teenager’s abuse tactics, along with feeding him hot sauce, handcuffing him and depriving him of sleep. Vander Ark had also instructed her older son — who faces a first-degree child molestation charge — to pour hot sauce on his brother’s genitals.

Although the 20-year-old denied it, he admitted to carrying out many of his mother’s demands during his testimony against her.