YouTube Gave Us a Strike Over This Case

YouTube Gave Us a Strike Over This Case

The whole world has condemned him. He’s guilty in everyone’s eyes, but anyone that knows him knows that my father isn’t capable of killing his child. Like, he can’t believe that he’s sitting in jail for something that he didn’t do. Many of our listeners have told us this is the worst case that they have ever heard, featuring a boy who was failed by everyone, brought about by two people so vile, so filled with hatred, that they were committed to making his life a constant state of hell. And what’s more, state agencies, despite overwhelming evidence, refused to intervene, even going so far as trusting his captors at their word. This is the horrific case of Adrian Jones.

Adrian Jones was born in Lawrence, Kansas, on May 15, 2008, to parents Diana (we’ve also heard Dana) Pearce and Michael Jones. He was described as a sweet and loving boy who loved to play with his siblings, and he loved football. Everything seemed somewhat normal in the Jones household until a few years later, when Michael Jones decided to uproot his family and move his bail bonds business to Topeka, Kansas. However, his intentions were all but pure. Michael Jones had been carrying on an affair and wanted to move to be closer to his mistress, Heather. Although Adrian was born in 2008, Michael Jones listed himself on Facebook as married as of 2007. A search of Heather’s Facebook shows her working for Mike Jones Bail Bonds LLC as of early 2007. Additionally, the couple also ran Paper Chase Promotions, promoting MMA fights in 2013, while Heather made additional income selling counterfeit Michael Kors watches and other jewelry and electronic items online.

To make matters worse, Diana was pregnant again and also was an unemployed nursing student. Michael was the breadwinner of the family and paid for everything, including Diana’s schooling. To add insult to injury, Michael struck his final blow by breaking off his relationship with Diana via text message. The dissolution of their relationship sent Diana into a spiral. The once-doting mother began to go out every night, leaving her motherly duties to Adrian’s 12-year-old sister, Keiona. The family soon moved into a furnished home provided to them by one of Diana’s friends. She tried her hand at relationships once more; however, the boyfriend, who again was the breadwinner in the relationship, broke it off. However, this man was not the first to enter her life since Michael left, nor was he the last. There seemed to be an ever-revolving door of new suitors each month, none of whom were reliable characters.

Soon the family was forced to move into a homeless shelter due to their expenses essentially being paid for. Diana didn’t seek employment opportunities and yet again forced her 12-year-old daughter, Keiona, to babysit her siblings while she went out every night. But Diana found love once again with a man who had the money to support her family, and they all moved into an apartment together. But as misfortune would have it, this man began to harm Diana, Adrian, and his siblings.

Soon Diana’s mother, Judy Conway, found out what had been transpiring, and Judy alerted CPS, who became involved. The grandmother intended to get custody of all the kids, but was only awarded custody of Diana’s 12-year-old daughter, Keiona. Michael Jones became aware of Judy trying to get full custody and fought her on all but Keiona, as she was not his biological daughter. Michael won the custody battle. Adrian, Madison, and Bella were sent to live with their father and his new wife, Heather, and Heather’s three kids. Adrian, who was just a toddler at the time, began to confide in Heather the harm he was subjected to at the hands of Diana’s boyfriends. He was ultimately diagnosed with PTSD and severe emotional detachment.

One would think that after what Adrian had been through and the fact that Michael had fought his hardest to take custody of Adrian and his two siblings that things would start to go better for the young boy, but this was just the beginning of another horror story, one far worse than anything Adrian had experienced thus far in his life. Initially, Adrian was sleeping on the family couch, but after Michael and Heather began to accuse him of stealing food and harming his sisters, they began to put him in restraints. We will get more into what those restraints consisted of later in the episode. Additionally, Adrian was not allowed to eat with his sisters and step-sisters and would be made to stand against the wall with his head turned upward for hours. He was also made to stand for hours with his hands in the air while his six sisters enjoyed meals from McDonald’s. Adrian was made to eat plain oatmeal if he was even fed at all. He was also made to do chores that were inappropriate for such a young boy to handle, such as chopping wood in the winter months, chores that other kids were not expected to do.

Months later, CPS became involved once again when calls to their agency regarding potential child abuse in the Joneses’ home were investigated. As a result, CPS agents made Michael sign a document promising not to harm Adrian and his siblings and to keep them away from Heather, who at this point had broken up with Michael and moved out of the family home. However, a month later they were back together, and she was allowed full contact with his kids, violating the promise that he had signed. In the bizarre part, Michael fully disclosed this information to CPS, and they did nothing about it at the time.

At the time, the Jones family had a live-in nanny named Patricia Domingay, who moved in with the family after her 2012 divorce. She observed that all of Heather’s biological kids, who happened to be the youngest, were treated much better than the older ones. The nanny noted that a lot of the harm was directed specifically at Adrian, however, she only witnessed spanking. Patricia described Adrian as, quote, “so sweet and these big eyes just filled with wonderment, very inquisitive and begged and begged for love and attention,” end quote. The nanny was also put in charge of homeschooling, which Michael referred to as the Jones Academy. However, no actual learning was taking place. She was able to get maybe an hour of teaching in before Michael or Heather would interfere. Homeschooling was more a way to isolate the kids away from potential mandated reporters in order to avoid detection, like we’ve seen before in other cases, such as Dakota Collins.

Additionally, Diana’s mother, Judy, who initially had made the first CPS call, contacted Michael in order to see her grandchildren; however, Michael avoided all of her calls. Later that year, CPS was involved yet again after they received an anonymous tip about suspected child abuse against Adrian, including being choked and spanked so hard that his backside was bleeding. Additionally, the tipster claimed that Michael had guns in the house and that Heather was high on drugs; however, nothing was done.

Soon the family uprooted to Missouri, and that state’s CPS services became involved with the family after they too received tips of suspected child abuse and deplorable conditions within the home, including Adrian being forced to stand in corners for hours, locks on the outside of his bedroom door, dead animals being stored in the family’s garage, and the remains of mice and chickens littering the family home. The tipster also claimed that Heather was selling meth out of the family home and that Adrian was eating out of the trash. Due to this, agencies in Missouri communicated with the ones in Kansas, and a full report on Heather Jones was shared. They outlined her history of child abuse as well as an incident where she shot herself in the foot. As a result, CPS Missouri deemed Adrian unsafe in the Jones family home, but instead of removing Adrian from the home and taking him into safety, CPS somehow thought that in-home services to support the family would be in Adrian’s best interest.

In response to the mandate for services, the Jones family informed CPS in Missouri that they plan to move back to Kansas. As a result, the agency got back in touch with Kansas CPS to inform them that the Jones family had moved back to their jurisdiction and were not in compliance with their in-home plan. When contacted by the Kansas agency, the Jones family claimed that they had changed their mind and planned to stay in Missouri.

Meanwhile, Adrian was being starved by his parents, and the poor boy was deteriorating fast. He had lost a ton of weight, and his small body was riddled with bruises. Yet again, CPS received another tip alleging that Adrian was being locked in his room and was subjected to child abuse by Heather Jones, which prompted a home visit by the Missouri agency. The CPS worker along with local law enforcement actually saw the bruises on Adrian’s body, but they still refused to remove him from the Jones home. Adrian told a CPS worker and an officer in Missouri that his father kept hitting him in the head.

Quotes from Adrian include: quote, “My daddy keeps hitting me in the head and punches me in the stomach, and my mom keeps pulling on my ears and it really hurts,” end quote; quote, “Mommy and daddy lock me in my room by myself. I have to sleep without a pillow and a blanket,” end quote; and finally, quote, “Mommy and daddy can’t feed me,” end quote. Additionally, Adrian told them that his father kicked him so hard in the back of his head that a little bone had come out of his nose. He was just five years old at this time. However, Heather and Michael kept claiming that Adrian was harming his sisters and starting fires. Trusting them on their word, Adrian was referred for mental health services and was placed with Spafford Residential Treatment Center in Grandview, Missouri, where he stayed for seven months. While Adrian was still in treatment, Missouri CPS received yet another tip stating that he would soon be released, that Michael Jones had registered an address in Kansas, and that he had no intentions of being compliant with Adrian’s mental health plan.

One year had passed, and police responded to a call claiming that Heather had been beaten by Michael after she told him that she planned to leave him. Additionally, Michael had choked Heather, threw her against a wall, and allegedly tried to shoot her. Heather’s face and neck showed visible signs of an attack. Additionally, Heather claimed that after searching the history of Michael’s computer, she discovered that he’d been searching for an odorless, colorless poison. Michael Jones was later arrested in his 2009 GMC Yukon truck just a short distance from their home with the kids with him, as well as an arsenal of firearms. He willingly admitted to the altercation. Additionally, he admitted to searching for the poison online as well, and offered up that he had thought about poisoning Heather after watching it on a true crime show.

As a last-ditch effort to provide police with enough information to keep Michael Jones behind bars, Heather gave a detailed account of the child abuse that Michael’s son, Adrian, was subjected to, including separating him from the girls, restraining him to a bed, shackling him in a closet, zipping him into a black suitcase, beating him with a broomstick, and strapping him to an inversion table blindfolded. These horrific acts went on for hours, sometimes even days at a time, and caused massive swelling to Adrian’s tiny limbs. Sometimes they’d forget about him even being there. She told them that Michael enjoyed kicking Adrian into the family’s swimming pool and made him stand there for hours in the cold. Keep in mind, this was a filthy pool that hadn’t been cleaned in months; the water was green and littered with plant debris and sludge. On one such occasion, Michael kicked Adrian with such force that he cut his head open. Rather than bringing him to the hospital, Heather sewed the wound shut at home.

Heather also enjoyed electrocuting Adrian with a taser and knew exactly how to position the electrodes for maximum pain. She would often fire it off to scare him, and on occasion would electrocute him in his private areas after accusing him of touching himself. She further went on to explain that eventually Adrian was placed in a shower stall in the master bathroom. The glass shower door was replaced with plywood, and a camera was installed to monitor him in his makeshift cell. The plywood door was held shut with a metal rod. He was denied clothes because he would soil himself due to lack of bathroom access. During this time, Adrian was also denied proper nutrition and had deteriorated into his skeleton. On the rare occasion he was able to escape his confinement in the bathroom stall and obtain food, Heather would accuse him of stealing and bring him to Michael, who would punch him as if he was punching a grown man. Keep in mind, Michael Jones was six-foot-two, 240 pounds, worked out regularly, and was a user of anabolic steroids.

Adrian would also attempt to chew through the plywood in order to escape. Due to the repeated beatings and electrocution from Heather and Michael, Adrian could no longer stand, and he was strapped to a lawn chair with ace bandages in the shower stall. Soon Adrian Jones would succumb to all of the harm inflicted onto his frail body. Cold and alone, covered in his own filth in his makeshift cell, he passed away at only seven years old.

Michael and Heather left his remains in the shower for up to two weeks, after which Heather purchased a group of piglets, which they kept for a period of time without feeding them anything at all. The purpose of this? Little Adrian was fed to them. They ate everything but his skull, his jawbone, his scapula, and his femur bones. Michael stored what was left of his own son in a black plastic bin with a pink lid in the barn. Later, Michael and Heather demolished the shower cell down to the bare wall and burned it in their backyard along with the lawn chair that was used to restrain Adrian.

Heather and Michael were placed under arrest, and all of the remaining kids in the home were taken into the care of CPS. Police were able to obtain copious amounts of evidence with Heather’s assistance, including portions of the shower in the lawn chair near a burn pile, the taser, the black suitcase, an orange sled with cut-out holes for Adrian’s arms that Heather used to restrain him, and pictures and text messages found on the couple’s phones, which were later used to estimate Adrian’s time of death, which was September 28, 2015. Additionally, the black plastic bin with a pink lid that housed Adrian’s bones was also recovered. Due to the severe damage to Adrian’s body, no cause of death was able to be determined at autopsy; however, they were able to determine that the bones they recovered did in fact belong to Adrian.

After her arrest, Heather contacted her landlord, Jennifer Hoovers, and asked her to go to the house to save some photos of her and her kids from her computer, providing Jennifer with all of her logging credentials. However, when Jennifer and her husband arrived at their rental property, they were shocked at its current state. The house was totally demolished, littered in garbage, there was drug paraphernalia on the floor, adult materials, and there were dead animals strewn about. Upon logging into Heather’s computer, Jennifer found countless pictures and videos of the child abuse inflicted upon Adrian. He was tied to cutting boards with ace bandages, blindfolded, and strapped to an inversion table. In one picture, he was tied to a chair with a plate of food in front of him with a bar of soap in his mouth. There was a video of him standing outside handcuffed in the winter, not properly dressed. Another showed him eating from a bowl that contained applesauce, dirt, and bugs. There was also a video of Adrian being beaten in the face repeatedly with a broomstick; in one such video, Heather is heard laughing. Jennifer made copies of the photos and video and provided them to police as well as Adrian’s grandmother.

Additionally, Jennifer found mail on a mattress addressed to Willie Flowers, who happened to be Michael’s uncle. He was staying with the family this entire time. All in all, three adults and seven kids were living in filth along with scores of animals. Willie would have witnessed everything that was taking place in regards to Adrian, and he did nothing.

Later, a friend of Heather’s reached out to police regarding a Facebook group that she used to belong to that Heather was part of. In the group, Heather made shocking posts trying to give Adrian away, calling him a psychopath. She also suggests wanting to kill him, feed him to pigs, and even references a Walking Dead episode where a girl is shot in the head after being told just look at the flowers. The most disgusting part? Other women in the group were consoling Heather and acting like she was the victim. So we’re just gonna read a few of the excerpts from the group that were brought into evidence:

“I have a psychopath I’m giving away for free today. He broke out last night and effed up my kitchen and everything I had baked up. I’m beyond pissed and he’s running laps around my pool and doing push-ups till I’m tired unless someone else wants him.”

“I’m so beyond done with this kid. Last night he chased me with the effing kitchen knife trying to stab me till I jumped the counter in pain and all and tackled his ass.”

“His bio mom effed this kid up like seriously. He kills everything he comes in contact with and has to be restrained 95 percent of the time.”

“Y’all sure you don’t want him? I’ll pay child support.”

Michael and Heather Jones were charged with first-degree homicide in Adrian’s death. Both pled guilty and were sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years. Heather also received five additional years and eight months for two child-abuse-related charges. The state of Kansas decided not to charge Willie Flowers with any crime, and he is still a free man to this day. Willie later released a statement to the public stating that he wished to be left alone. Adrian’s grandmother, Judy Conway, lobbied for a bill which was signed into law in 2021 called Adrian’s Law, which would make it mandatory for any minors reported to CPS for suspected child abuse to be seen by a representative of that agency or a law enforcement officer. The law also makes observing child abuse and not reporting it to the proper authorities a criminal offense.

One of the worst parts of this case, beyond the cruel manner in which Adrian suffered and ultimately lost his life, is the fact that no one really knew he was missing. Adrian and his siblings had been taken out of school and all contact from potential mandated reporters had been evaded. Michael had managed to dodge Adrian’s grandmother, Judy Conway, for years, and finally, the family had moved back and forth across the Missouri and Kansas state line so many times within just a few years that social services couldn’t keep up with them. Had Heather Jones not admitted to the officers what had happened to Adrian, who knows how long it would have taken for them to be caught, if they would even be caught at all.