69 South
Podcast 69 South is about mystery, true crime, attempting to find the truth in a world full of chaos. We dig deep in to current and past true crime incidents. Reporting what we find to our listeners. We want to become your reliable source for all things relevant, while we live in a society that is truly lost.
69 South
From Praise to Peril: The Stafford Family's Unraveling
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Speaker 2:Welcome everyone to Podcast 69 South, where we cuss and discuss true crime, cold cases, current events and hot topics, along with our state of society today. This is your trigger warning. Our podcast content is produced for adult listeners, 18 years of age and older. We discuss situations that may be offensive and triggering to some listeners. Sit back, relax and enjoy.
Speaker 1:New details tonight on the Morgan County couple facing human trafficking charges Following a seven-month investigation. Brian and Sonia Stafford face 121 combined charges for crimes involving at least 11 victims, spanning more than a decade. They were the subject of a feature story in a local newspaper eight years ago covering their adoption of 11 kids, mostly from the state of Florida. At the time, the kids ranged from 5 to 17 years old. The story celebrated the empty nester's decision to adopt. Sonia Stafford is accused of strangling victims and keeping them from talking to police in 2020. Prosecutors claim Brian Stafford molested at least four minders under his care. Their next court date is set for March.
Speaker 2:Welcome everybody to this episode of 69 South March. Welcome everybody to this episode of 69 South. We're bringing you a breaking story that just has unfolded in Morgan County, indiana, just within the past three to four days. With me today is my always beautiful co-host, julie. How are you doing today, julie?
Speaker 3:I'm good. How are you? I'm doing?
Speaker 2:wonderful. Before we get started on this case, I want to say that this case is just now entering the litigation stage and all participants are innocent until proven guilty. Now, as you heard on that news clip, there was a newspaper article that were praising this couple for their adoption practices and we dug deep to find this news clip and we have that news clip right here for you and Julie's going to read it for you.
Speaker 3:So in January of 2016, the Reporter Times in Martinsville, indiana, wrote this article called Emptiness by Adopting Children, basically talking about Brian and Sonia Stafford adopting all these children, and it goes like this After their two biological children left the house to begin their adult lives, martinsville residents, sonia and Brian Stafford, were left with a big house, plenty of farmland and no one to fill it, and instead of enjoying peace and quiet and believing her job was done after raising her two children, sonia Stafford was seeking something more 11 more to be exact. In the past five years, stafford has adopted 11 children, mostly from Florida. They range in age from 5 years old to 17 years old, and she homeschools all of them.
Speaker 2:Now it feels like she's meeting the purpose she was meant to fulfill. For a while I was wondering what my purpose was for in this world. I didn't feel I had met it. Stafford said. I have a heart to give and a lot to do. I felt like I had so much. I wanted to put it somewhere. The Staffords live on a 23-acre farm off of Herbemont Road, so they had plenty of room to welcome in more children. It was five years ago when the Staffords, with Sonia leading the way, started looking into adoption. We thought about foster care, but we had no inclination at all, stafford said. But as they were getting ready for their youngest daughter's wedding, a call came in. Four children were available to be adopted from Florida. It was three weeks until the wedding day and the family was very, very busy, but they made the trip and adopted the first four of their 11.
Speaker 3:We thought, gosh, we need to do something. We need to adopt those kids, Stafford said. We didn't want to miss the chance. Six months later, four more came from Florida. The Staffords could have adopted six, but two of the second set chose not to come and stayed in Florida. It's the most grand thing in the world, Stafford said, to make life better for someone else. We're glad we have that possibility.
Speaker 2:The final three have not been with the family long, having been adopted. December 6th the eight children joined their parents on the trip to get their siblings and the family was set. Stafford said this is probably it and the family probably won't likely add any more, but she didn't rule out the possibility. You never know. She said we may add more. I'm just not looking anymore.
Speaker 3:Managing the household. Stafford said she thrives on energy and activity and has boundless amounts A 51-year-old whirlwind she can't sit. Still. That's good news. When taking care of 11 children, they're all needy. When it comes to me, stafford said. Sometimes it makes for fierce competition. That's why Stafford needed a few rules and systems in place to manage so many children, because, while she thrives on energy, she hates chaos.
Speaker 2:Each child has their own color cup-coated cubby as well as their own water bottles marked with a marker. Each child washes their own cup when they are done and puts it away. I quickly found each child needed their own. Stafford said of the bottles. I wasn't going to have any fights over that. In school the children take turns sharing the laptops for school. Some work can be done without a computer so there is time limit on the laptops.
Speaker 3:There is a point system in which a child gets points when they misbehave. The points are kept on a chart so Stafford and the children can remember where each child is and if anyone is being punished. As far as expenses, the Staffords are frugal. They grow their own food when they can, getting chickens and cows from their farm, fish from their pond and even grinding and making their own bread from time to time. And everyone drinks water.
Speaker 2:We make sure nobody is wasteful in food. Stafford said Almost all of the children's clothing is hand-me-downs. They've gotten a lot of items donated from their church and other families. All of our games are donated, or games we had before. Stafford said People are so generous they give us things they don't want anymore and a lot of it is still good.
Speaker 3:All of the children also have a 4-H animal for which they care for. Stafford said that's been great at teaching them life responsibilities. In fact, when she asked them what they want for Christmas, the answer is another animal. They don't want anything else, which I guess is a good thing, but we can't always get sisters. Stafford said Stafford said.
Speaker 2:ultimately, it's about raising 11 children to become adults and productive members of society. If they can do that, they've done their job. It's about the growth of the kids. Stafford said I love to see the enthusiasm they have for everything. That's what keeps me going and that wrapped up the newspaper article that we dug out for you guys. Now it sounds like a pretty super good life that these kids were having. What do you think?
Speaker 3:I mean it sounds like that, but hindsight's 20-20. And to know what you know now and go back and read that article, some of the stuff that she was saying she really meant. But kind of in an evil way she really meant but kind of in a evil way.
Speaker 2:I mean, a lot of these kids probably came from bad situations or maybe they lost their parents or you know, who knows what gets you into the adoption system. What I thought was weird is how you could just put feelers out there and adopt a bunch of kids from a different state out there and adopt a bunch of kids from a different state.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we have a source who told us that how they found these kids is they went online and searched kids for adoption and groups of kids would pop up from different states and they chose these children from Florida to go down there and adopt and bring back to Indiana.
Speaker 2:There's a lot going to unfold in this case people. We are going to be with it step by step. What we do know at this point in the investigation is the article referred to him as empty nesters. That's because they had already raised three kids of their own three kids of their own. It was reported also from a confidential source that we will have and talk about later that they had one child that had committed suicide, and the source said that the child was 17 years old and committed suicide in 2004.
Speaker 3:Because he couldn't go to his girlfriend's house and out of respect for their other children, we're going to not name them because they weren't there. They were already gone. They probably didn't know all this stuff was happening. So, out of respect for them, we're not going to mention who they are, but their son that did commit suicide. His name was Cody Stafford and he was 17 years old and he took his life in 2004.
Speaker 2:We are further going to investigate that suicide and we're going to come up with some more facts on that for you. But that is what we have at this point on that. Here at 69 South we were able to get a firsthand account of what it was like to live on the Stafford farm in these said years.
Speaker 3:When I first learned of this story and post about it and decided to do it, the response was crazy. I had numerous people reach out to me wanting to tell their stories, wanting to talk, and it kind of blew me away and I knew that this story was going to be a big one and what these children went through was disgusting and we're going to cover every bit of it.
Speaker 2:At this point. We do know that that family farm has been sold, and we also know that Sonia and Brian are now divorced as of.
Speaker 3:November 1st of 2024, divorced as of November 1st of 2024. And they also moved away. They do not live out on the farm anymore. Sonia moved to Plainfield and Brian lives in Newcastle, I believe now.
Speaker 2:Well, Sonia lives in the. Morgan County Jail at the moment.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, because she's still in jail, but Brian Stafford has made bond.
Speaker 2:Also, our investigation has led us to some other interesting facts. Now keep in mind that Brian and Sonia Stafford would be really close, or in their early 60s, by this time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm not sure how much older Brian Stafford was than Sonia, but we know that in 2016, sonia was 51. So that makes her what? 59 now, so around 60 years old of some age. That's what the age range we are saying is.
Speaker 2:Keep in mind that that news article that we read to you was written nine years ago and at the time of said article one of the victims in this case was age 10 years old. Now we looked at the newspaper clippings of this article and it showed a big family photo and the girl the victim that was 10 years old is now his baby mama.
Speaker 2:They reportedly had a child together and the child was just born and we're not going to mention the victim's name because she's a victim, out of respect for her, but they a child now, yeah, and we don't know. We do know that they have the same last name because he adopted her, and we have reason to believe that they're living as a married couple yeah, a married couple, husband and wife.
Speaker 3:And this victim now I believe she's 18, 19 years old and married, or pretending to be married, I'm not sure 100 percent to a 60, 65 year old man that was supposed to be her father and raised her.
Speaker 2:We do want to point out that, looking at Sonia's charges, there was no actual sex charges.
Speaker 3:Child molestation charges, but there is promotion of human trafficking.
Speaker 2:And what that charge by Indiana statute means a person who by force, threat or force or fraud knowingly or intentionally recruits, harbors or transports another person to one. Engage another person, person in A forced labor, b involuntary servitude or to force another person into A marriage, b prostitution or. C participating in sexual contact or commits promotional of human trafficking. A. Level four felony. A person who knowingly, intentionally recruits, arbors or transport a child less than 18.
Speaker 3:And what's what that means for her charges, I wonder, as if she was either because she initiated the adoptions that got all the children to their place of residence and forced them to do all of this work. I believe human trafficking is not just sexual, but it's also forced labor and other things of that nature. But there's a slew of each of these charges and if you want to finish them, up.
Speaker 2:She's also charged with strangulation. I think we all know what that means. She's also been charged of multiple counts of domestic battery on a child less than 14 years old, and domestic battery is basically if you batter somebody that lives in the same household as you. She's also been charged of neglect of a dependent domestic battery over 14, intimidation with a deadly weapon, battery resulting in bodily injury and, like Julie said, there is a slew of each one of these charges.
Speaker 3:She also got obstruction of justice because she was trying to prevent some of the children from coming forward and telling what really happened.
Speaker 2:Now to get in some of Brian's charges. We have child molesting and the victim, it says, and the charges read at least 21 years of age. Now I'm not too sure how that works, because you wouldn't think you could be molesting. I'm not sure if that means that the victim is now over 21. I don't think it would mean that. Maybe it means that it's some sort of incestual deal, like he was molesting one of his adopted kids, because when you adopt a kid, they're your child, 100%.
Speaker 2:We have child molesting under 14 years of age. There is multiple charges on that, so it was multiple times, multiple occasions he's being accused of.
Speaker 3:Multiple girls.
Speaker 2:Performance of child molestation before minor that means he was doing it in front of other children Neglect of a dependent and, as Sonia was charged with, he was also charged with promotion of human trafficking Folks. He was charged with over 50 crimes.
Speaker 3:Felonies.
Speaker 2:These are all the main gist of the crimes. There's just so many multiples of these charges.
Speaker 3:Dating back all the way from 2011 to currently, I believe.
Speaker 2:Now, like we told you earlier on 69 South, we got an inside look, an exclusive interview from one of the children who were adopted by the Staffords and we're going to give him an interview, an exclusive interview You're only going to hear on 69 South. I have had a chance to personally talk to this young man and, to be honest with you, he seems like a level-headed, really cool young man. We're going to ask him the questions that our listeners would want to hear the answers to. Let's get to it.
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Speaker 2:So, buddy, what age were you when the Staffords adopted you and your siblings?
Speaker 4:Six years old. Six years old, 2006.
Speaker 2:How many siblings did they adopt with you? Five, five, five. Now you said that not all the siblings stayed, or did five of you stay?
Speaker 4:There was actually six of us all together, but two of them left because they were the age of 17 and 18.
Speaker 2:So there was four that stayed.
Speaker 4:Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:Okay, give us a quick rundown of what life was like on the Stafford farm as an adopted child.
Speaker 4:Basically, there were definitely restrictions that were required by the Stafford farm, which were working If you don't work, you don't eat. Those rules didn't, you know, always suit our benefits because we always needed to eat and provide what they needed. But definitely we needed to eat because they didn't provide food and water and what they needed us, you know, to need.
Speaker 2:That sounds pretty crappy. So how was Sonia and Brian's attitude towards you guys Like, towards the general attitude towards the children? Did he have certain children that they favored and worked harder, or what was their general attitude?
Speaker 4:General attitude was they did favor. Some of the people including one of the you know kid that he got pregnant and was one of my own brother and sister's family member that she did favor because she liked her, because supposedly she did the right thing even though she didn't, but supposedly she favored her because she acted like her.
Speaker 2:Now they said that they homeschooled you guys. How was the homeschooling like? Were they really spending you know, a big part of the time of your day teaching you guys what they should have been about schooling, or was that just kind of some BS?
Speaker 4:From 8.30 to 4 o'clock in the afternoon she homeschooled us. It did take us quite a long time, after the four o'clock restriction that she gave us, to finish the work. It is a curriculum that one grade ahead of what grade that you usually do, so it definitely did take us definitely longer than four hours to finish the project, so you were getting an education. Yeah, we were getting education, but it was extremely hard.
Speaker 2:You mentioned before that they had punishments like if you didn't get your work done or maybe you didn't perform like they wanted you to as far as working on the farm goes. Can you explain some of those punishments to us and how they were carried out?
Speaker 4:If you weren't done with school during this specific time, you had to stay up until you had your school caught up, so meaning you didn't eat until you were caught up at school that certain time. If you still weren't caught up in that certain time and she was ready to go to bed, you had to strip everything you had besides your underwear and sleep on the hard, cold wooden floor till you were caught up.
Speaker 2:So that was a punishment for not getting your schoolwork done and what about punishments for not getting your farmwork done?
Speaker 4:If your farmwork wasn't done, she made you do an extra hour of work until you were done with that certain time of the work. So even if you were four hours done with that project, you were added on with that much. Sentences and sentences is considered a bible verse. Your age that you had to do and if you were 18 years old you had to do 18 bible verse words to set in the bible and you had to do that two times. So it would be like if you're 1,000 times like 1,000 minutes late, you had to do 2,000.
Speaker 2:Now, was there an age that you started noticing the abuse that's alleged through the criminal charges that they have been charged with, like. Give me a rundown of that, like how old were you when you noticed it? What did you notice? Or what, what could you tell was going on?
Speaker 4:um. So if I came there during I was six years old, it took about two years for me to understand what was going on, but I was about eight years old until I realized what was really going on. I I realized that definitely, she was a person that did not let anything slip by her. She made everything that you did wrong into a consequence.
Speaker 2:Sounds like she kept a pretty tight ship and knew everything that was going on there at the farm. Yes, yes, sir, as you're aware of, uh, brian stafford was charged with several molestation of some of the girls there, allegedly on the farm. How possible do you think it was that she had no knowledge of the sexual abuse that was going on there?
Speaker 4:he always worked in the workshop, which was a wood, metal, you know workshop that you built stuff and um made animal stuff or um, she was mainly in the kitchen. Um, she was aware of that because she was always in the workshop building stuff.
Speaker 2:You know that's where the stuff was going on.
Speaker 4:That is in the workshop man yeah, yeah, that's exactly where it worked on, because one of my younger sisters said, you know, he just showed me, uh, my, his area when he was in the workshop and when she went past that room he already had been covered it up. And so that's what I caused you know, that's what know caused me suspicion because of what was going on, um of him doing that, and so finally I mentioned it to the whole family. He actually said, yeah, that's what I did, that's what I did wrong. You know, I kept a secret. You know that's what kept family from you know, being told what was actually going on.
Speaker 2:You mean family outside of the family.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yes, sir.
Speaker 2:Okay, this is kind of a tough question for you, buddy. Did you ever personally witness or hear from a family member any of the inappropriate actions that they're being charged with?
Speaker 4:Heard about it from my brothers and sisters. They said they would go up to the chicken house and he would, you know, pull out of his private area and show what was going on. And they were little kids during the time so they didn't know what part was what and what was going on. And he was definitely a man, so he knew what he was doing wrong, but they didn't know what he was doing. So I definitely think that he should be, you know, what deserved, what he deserved, because they were little kids during the time.
Speaker 2:It was reported that this abuse went on for a good decade. Do you know of any time that you or the other children tried to contact the Department of Children Services in the county Morgan County that the farm was located in? If so, what was the reaction from DCS of any reporting and how many times do you think it might have been reporting?
Speaker 4:I would say about four times that we reported that, that they were doing stuff wrong. They were supposed to. I was about 11 year old, uh, when I reported this and, uh, sonny made us lie to them that this was happening. Oh, I was the only one that actually mentioned something that actually did happen, but they didn't believe me because I was the only kid that told the truth.
Speaker 2:So Sonia made all the other kids lie about it.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, I bet the consequences if they didn't lie would have been pretty harsh.
Speaker 4:Yes, If we didn't mention that the next day we would have probably been abused or, you know, would have eaten that day, etc.
Speaker 2:So did they, like you said, abuse, like physical abuse? Did they like hit you with belts or what kind of physical punishments that were out of the ordinary can you describe to us?
Speaker 4:They definitely picked us up by our neck, lifted us up in the air and persuaded us to tell the truth. But we were strong and we definitely didn't tell them the truth when they did that, so harder punishments than whipping. So they started hitting us with their bare hands, making us bleed until we told the truth. We eventually told the truth, which you know they found out and led to other problems they were involved with describe your breaking point and describe you know where you went and how you got out of there.
Speaker 4:My breaking point was when my little sister not my real blooded but definitely my sister that I lived with for quite a bit of years was slammed against a barn wall and punched across the face so many times that she started bleeding to the nose that I couldn't stand it anymore. So I left the next morning, packed my dog and closed up to leave to a farm that I worked at and never saw her again. And that's what was the breaking point. So I can never see her face and never see what she did to the kids ever again.
Speaker 2:So you had went to work on another farm that was kind of close by the Stafford farm, and then I would like for you to tell us what happened and why you think you were sent back to Florida. What?
Speaker 4:happened and why you think you were sent back to Florida. I think I was sent back to Florida because Sonia actually sent me to Florida because she didn't want to know what actually happened at the Sonia farm, sonia and Brian farm so actually we she actually sent me down for her own benefit instead of mine.
Speaker 2:So you think she actually sent her down there so you wouldn't be part of this investigation, that she inevitably knew that it was coming?
Speaker 4:Yes sir, yes sir.
Speaker 2:Do you know how everything like the match, started this bonfire of trouble? Do you think that you might have had something to do with that, like the whole start of the investigation?
Speaker 4:um, I think she started to realize because I started sneaking stuff, um, not caring what was going on. And uh, she actually asked me in personal you know problems? She's like, so you know what's going on. I'm like, yeah, she's like, so who actually told the CPS that we were actually abusing you know? You? I'm like I actually did and she's like, okay, okay, so she didn't really like okay, okay, so she didn't really care about that. Really, maybe she personally, inside of herself she did, but she didn't like persuade it or inform it, so maybe she was just keeping it inside of herself to wait till the last beginning. But I was definitely the one that persuaded everyone CPS, police and everything to come and arrest them?
Speaker 2:Were you guys all like formally interviewed by law enforcement? Do you think that's how most of these formal charges came about?
Speaker 4:No, yes, all of us were definitely informed, but Sonia definitely made the portion of them to lie to them that none of this happened. But I was definitely the leader of them to tell them that this happened. But would they think of one person to say this than like nine of them? No. So I was definitely the main person that told them the truth, but the other of them, you know, told the lie, which wasn't true what.
Speaker 2:That took an awful lot of um bravery to do that, man, because so they they pretty much never let you guys leave the farm. They kept you guys 24 hours a day except for church services and stuff right there at the farm so they could keep an eye on you guys and made sure no information got out or you guys weren't around other children your age so you didn't go to the schools around there, you just. They basically kept you on the farm 24 hours a day working and um away from society, so society wouldn't figure out what was going on and so you guys didn't see what real society was like yes, sir.
Speaker 4:So but you know like you know what the real world looks like? Um, selfishness, not caring about others, not caring about their own family. Supposedly she was like that. She didn't care what we thought, what we said. If we tried to say something, she would not agree with it because she was her own person. She didn't care about what we thought because we were our own person. So basically our thoughts didn't even matter to her. So basically our thoughts went to the side and her thoughts went forward. So why would we say anything if she didn't care about what we said? So we just let her say what she said. We didn't care about what she said, because we only cared about what we said.
Speaker 2:She understand that I understand that completely and it sounds like if you opened your mouth then you wouldn't get to open your mouth to put food in it later right, right.
Speaker 4:So, uh, even if we spoke up for ourselves, it still wouldn't have mattered. If we have spoken up for ourselves, she probably would have made it worse. So why speak up for ourselves? So we just kept it calm and kept it cool.
Speaker 2:That must have been pretty rough.
Speaker 4:Yes, sir, yes sir, I wish something would have happened sooner or later, but nothing really did until the last end.
Speaker 2:Right, and it's also been reported, probably without saying any of the victims' names, that he as recently as close as November of this year got a divorce from Sonia and then he has had a child within the past couple months with one of the victims that you knew from the farm. Is that correct and what do you know about that?
Speaker 4:Definitely one of the sisters I live with definitely had an interest in Brian Stafford and he seemed to have an interest in her and you know I caught a suspicion because they would always work together, you know, close up the chickens at night together. And I caught a suspicion and you know they never brought it up until the last stand, until I got pregnant. So definitely it was a shock because I'm like I knew this would happen, but would it really happen? No, I didn't think that would really happen but it did. So it was definitely a shock for me.
Speaker 2:Do you think that's the main reason that Brian and Sonia got the divorce? Was that one of the adopted girls got pregnant?
Speaker 4:Yes, I really think it would have, because Brian and Sonia built the whole farm we lived on. They really did. They built the whole farm on, had people live with them to help them build it together, built the whole farm on, had people live with them to help them build it together. Um, they definitely lived through the trauma that their own son killed themselves because of what they did wrong and uh, just because one of the uh sisters I live with got pregnant of him, you you know, messed up the whole relationship together. So I think that definitely messed up the whole relationship, but if he didn't have done that, they would have been together right now.
Speaker 2:He's been charged with molestation of several girls like, I think, the numbers between six and, but between four and six. So you think that for sure was happening to other of the girls on the farm yeah, I actually think ever since we've been there.
Speaker 4:My, my younger sister that I've lived with was like eight years old, and the other girls that I live with were like five years old, and so I think it's been happening ever since I've been there. So I think he deserves what he deserves and you know he's definitely done that ever since we were the youngest age we've ever been, since I was six years old.
Speaker 2:That's a lot of trauma for somebody to go through, buddy. Yes, sir, we're going to cut that interview off right there. Man, a lot of that shit is really really hard to listen to. That young man was awful, brave for throwing up the red flags and you know, trying to help his other brothers and sisters absolutely, and we're going to have more interviews uh with other the victims. They're reaching out and we look forward to letting them tell their story and some of them.
Speaker 3:They want to tell their story, but they don't want to necessarily talk or give their identity, which is completely fine. They want anonymity. They're going to get it. So just say a prayer for all these victims tonight and until next time. Have a good day, good evening. Whatever, we'll see you next time.
