Wisconsin stepmother pleads no contest after teen found weighing 35 pounds, severely neglected
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OUTAGAMIE, Wisconsin — A Wisconsin stepmother has pleaded no contest to multiple charges after investigators say a 14-year-old girl was found severely malnourished and neglected inside a family trailer last summer.
According to a criminal complaint, Walter Goodman called 911 on Aug. 21, 2025, asking officers to check on his daughter, telling dispatchers the teen had not eaten in several days, was lethargic, and was drifting in and out of consciousness. Goodman told the dispatcher his daughter, who is on the autism spectrum, was “just laying there with her eyes open all creepy” and had been vomiting for nearly a week.
When officers arrived, they found the girl “severely underweight and malnourished,” with prominent bones and the appearance of a child half her age, the complaint states. She was hospitalized weighing just 35 pounds and suffering from several life-threatening conditions, including untreated diabetes, acute respiratory failure, cardiac dysfunction, severe hepatitis, pancreatitis, hypothermia and hypoglycemia.
The teen told medical staff she struggled even to walk and could only shower weekly or monthly. She reportedly did not know what deodorant was.
A little over two months after the 911 call, prosecutors charged Walter and his wife, Melissa Goodman, 51, with chronic child neglect and false
imprisonment.
Court records show that on May 6, Melissa Goodman entered a no contest plea to chronic neglect causing great bodily harm, chronic neglect causing emotional damage and false imprisonment. She is scheduled for sentencing July 1 and faces up to 46 years in prison.
Investigators say evidence recovered from Melissa’s phone showed photos of the teen lying on a bare floor wearing only underwear and socks, and text messages in which Melissa threatened to take away the girl’s bed. In other messages, she expressed support after learning the girl had been beaten with a belt and encouraged additional physical punishment.
Police also discovered a bolt lock with long screws that matched holes on the outside of the victim’s bedroom door, suggesting she may have been routinely confined. The girl later told authorities she believed it had been years since she was last allowed to play outside.
Melissa is the first of four defendants to enter a plea. Charges are still pending against Walter Goodman, Melissa’s daughter Savanna LeFever, and LeFever’s partner Kayla Stemler. All four face the possibility of decades in prison if convicted.