Susan Abney, 46, was sentenced to life in prison Oct. 11 for neglect or abuse of a child resulting in death following the 2020 starvation death of her adopted daughter, Josie Ann Abney. The sentencing hearing took place in a Steelville courtroom due to an approved change of venue request from Abney’s legal team.
Abney and her husband, Randall, were both initially charged with second-degree murder and abuse or neglect of a child resulting in death after their adopted daughter, Josie, died at Salem Memorial District Hospital Oct. 3, 2020. At the time, Josie weighed only 34 pounds, had a blood sugar level of 10 (a healthy blood sugar would be between 70 and 120 for someone Josie’s age) and was so dehydrated that a blood sample could not be drawn. Her protruding bones and emaciation were described by law enforcement as though she “appeared like a Holocaust victim.”
Randall was found guilty of these charges by jury trial in August. His sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 18.
Susan had earlier pled guilty and did not undergo a trial. Abney also accepted a plea deal with the prosecutor to testify against her husband, Randall, at his trial in August at the Dent County Courthouse. The prosecutor’s office dropped the murder charge and agreed to ask for 29 years during sentencing instead of a life sentence.
Dent County Prosecutor Andrew Curley acknowledged that it’s possible that Abney testified against her husband in order to save her own skin or her own soul but, regardless, Curley characterized Susan’s testimony as having played a crucial part in the state’s case against Randall.
With tears in his eyes, Curley said to the judge that Josie can’t be brought back, but that Randall and Susan can be brought to justice.
He also acknowledged that, unlike her husband, Susan did not cling to the long-held lie that somehow Josie had starved herself.
Curley also said that it’s clear that the pair had come to despise Josie.
Judge Michael Randazzo, who presided over the sentencing hearing, stated from the beginning that he was not going to be limited in his judgment by promises or deals made by the prosecutor; he planned to at least consider the full range of possible punishment.
Randazzo addressed Abney, saying that sentencing was his chance to speak on Josie’s behalf. Randazzo said that Susan had a chance to give Josie life, but instead took that from Josie. Randazzo sentenced Susan Abney to life in prison.
During her hearing, Dent County Sheriff’s Deputy Sergeant Chris Robbins took the stand. Robbins was the first responder to the scene when the Abney’s called 911 after Josie collapsed and was nonresponsive.
Robbins testified that he was able to identify a faint pulse at that time and he attempted CPR. Once the ambulance arrived, Robbins drove the ambulance while EMT staff worked on Josie.
Robbins testified that he has been involved in well over 100 death investigations during the 12 years he has been in law enforcement, all of which he has worked for the Dent County Sheriff’s Office.
“This is the only death investigation that, after, I went home and cried,” he told Curley.
Curley asked Robbins if he still spends much time thinking about that night.
“I regularly have nightmares where I’m working on her again,” Robbins also said.
The correspondence between Susan and Randall from winter 2019 to fall 2020 reveal them referring to Josie repeatedly as “it,” “stupid” and a “little bitch,” among other insults. They also mockingly reference physical punishments Josie received for trying to sneak food away from the refrigerator or from vehicles. They further mock Josie over increasingly desperate attempts to find nourishment. Among the incidents referenced is Josie eating pudding off a school-bus floor, consuming a tube of toothpaste, eating dog food and drinking water from a toilet. At one point, Susan sent Randall a text stating of Josie, “She will eat shit, LOL.”
According to Susan Abney’s testimony at her husband’s trial, the idea of punishing Josie through food deprivation was Randall’s, when Josie didn’t do chores such as cleaning or laundry. She told prosecutor Curley, during Randall’s trial, that these punishments escalated in time and were eventually handed down for not doing chores fast enough, then finally for Josie trying to eat food. Josie was also punished by having her blanket taken away and locking her out of her closet, keeping her from accessing clothing to keep warm at night.
Public Defender Chad Picker, who represented Susan Abney, spent much of his time speaking about the remorse Abney felt for her choices. During his argument, Picker read a letter Susan had written while incarcerated detailing her own personal account of a hard life. In the letter, she referenced being raped when she was a teenager and living a life where, prior to marrying Randall on Oct. 11, 2011, many of the men in her life had physically, verbally, or sexually abused her or some combination of the three. Susan’s letter also included how at one point, while in jail after Josie’s death, she had secretly been hoarding her prescribed medication one at a time until she had 25 pills—Susan planned to kill herself, but then, according to her letter, had a dream. In this dream, she saw Josie speaking to her, telling Susan that she forgave her and that she was an angel now. When Susan woke up, she flushed her hoarded pills down the toilet in her cell. Susan also wrote that she had since been attending Bible study while in jail.
Josie Ann Abney was born in Poplar Bluff as Jocelyn Abrianna Chadwell on Feb. 6, 2010. Her biological parents were a teenage mother and father from Shannon County. She was placed with Susan and Randall Abney as a foster child when she was only 22 months old. The couple had acted as foster parents to more than a dozen children over four years. They later legally adopted Josie and had her name changed.
