Couple's 'Hooked on Phonics' House of Horror Hoarding Nightmare | Katie Koch/Joel Manke Analysis

hell this is Dr Grande today's question is can I analyze the case of Katie cotch and Joel Mankey just to reminder I'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon I will put the link to patreon in the description for this video first I'll look at the background of this case move to the timeline of the alleged crime then offer my analysis Katie kotch was born on July 28 1988 and lived in Milwaukee Wisconsin she had a son in April of 2014 and another son in September of 2015 at some point she became romantically involved with a man named Joel Mankey he had been born on January 5th 1985 so he was about 3 and a half years older than Katie since 2007 Joel lived in a white 14 60t 3-bedroom house located at 128 South 71st Street in Milwaukee Wisconsin this is in the Blue Mound Heights neighborhood Katie and her sons moved into Joel's house sometime in late 2019 or early 2020 the house is about 300 ft north of Interstate 94 but the smell of exhaust fumes could be considered refreshing compared to what Katie and Joel allegedly did to this house now moving to the timeline of the alleged crime on Thursday July 13 2023 the police responded to the neighborhood where Katie and Joel lived after receiving multiple 911 calls indicating that two children were walking around the neighborhood with blood on them and without clothing as it turns out these two children were Katie's Sons ages 9 and seven when the police arrived they learned from from Neighbors that Katie had pulled one of the children into her house as the police approached the house 34-year-old Katie exited the residence through the side door she appeared to be disheveled anxious agitated and flustered she was pacing and swaying her body back and forth Katie was on the phone with a man she could be heard saying quote I'm standing outside in the driveway right now are you almost home so you can help explain what's going on I love you I love you unquote Katie explained to the police officer that her father just passed away and her children had broken a window in the house the police said they needed to see the inside of the house upon making entry they witnessed what was described as a house of horror the floor was barely visible because there was so much trash piled on top of it there was an overwhelming odor of feces and urine a latch could be seen on the door for the bedroom occupied by Katie Suns which allowed the door to be locked from the outside inside the bedroom the walls were covered with faces Katie insisted to the police that the substance on the walls was a combination of paint chocolate and Clay but it was obvious that she was being deceptive the police described the condition of the house as being indicative of a terrible hoarding situation when the police exited the house they encountered Katie's 38-year-old boyfriend friend Joel Mankey standing in the driveway he told them that he had been living there since 2007 and that Katie and her children had lived there for about 3 and 1/2 years he described himself as having a stepdad type relationship with the children and they called him dad the assistance he provided as far as raising the children was in the form of cooking and basic caretaking functions Katie was responsible for the children's hygiene and putting them in bed at night there was a board on a window for the children's bedroom Joel said that he put it there to prevent the children from bothering a nosy neighbor Joel admitted that the latch on the door was used to lock the children in the room overnight he implied that the children had autism and would wander around according to Joel in the 3 and A2 years that Katie and her children lived with him they had never gone to school Joel was aware that the living conditions were not good but said had to pick his battles with Katie to avoid arguments he never contacted the police or schools because he did not believe in doing that to family members the police continued their investigation by interviewing several people in the neighborhood here's what the neighbors had to say a 62-year-old neighbor said that she observed Katie panicking and saying that her children ran out of the window this neighbor's 13-year-old grandson told the police that he saw one of the boys walking on the sidewalk walk like a caveman as if he had never seen the son before a 61-year-old neighbor who lived in his residence for 30 years said he didn't even know children lived in Katie's house a 75-year-old neighbor said that she knew children lived there but had never seen them outside the police received a longer account of what happened that day from a 60-year-old neighbor he knew that the boys lived in Katie's house but hadn't seen them in 3 years at 3:00 p.m. he witnessed the boys peeking outside of their bedroom window in the rear of Katie's house the neighbor realized that the window had been shattered moments later one of the boys was standing on the air conditioning unit outside the window the boys ran to the front of the house and then down the street they were not wearing any clothing this neighbor said that he had concerns about the house for a while for example he never saw Katie or Joel take groceries into the house but he would frequent see Joel with two containers of food which appeared to be ordered to go later the police sat down for a longer interview with Katie here's what she told them her two sons had never been to school but she homeschooled them the boys had educational apps on their tablets and just the other day Katie obtained new Hooked on Phonics workbooks for them Katie admitted that she did not have a proper curriculum for homeschooling as far as her son's educational progress the older son was able to trace sweaters and read small words the younger son was learning how to put sentences together in proper form Katie admitted that the lock on her son's room and the excrement on their walls had been there for a number of years the last time she bathed her sons was 5 days earlier Katie realized that she blanked up and her children deserved better she admitted the home was not habitable an wrote a three-page apology letter to her sons Katie did not want her sons to lose the stability that they had in her house both Katie and Joel were charged in connection with neglecting Katie's sons and subjecting them to false imprisonment they pleaded not guilty if convicted they could be sentenced to over 40 years in prison the authorities removed Katie's two sons from her custody and they are receiving care the prosecutor said that the boys were unable to function in society and were completely uneducated they had essentially been confined to their bedroom when they lived with Katie in August of 2023 the house that Katie and Joel lived in was sold for $135,000 it appears as though the new owner intended to clean up the house and resell it a neighbor reported that when the house was being cleaned it smelled like a sewer pond at one point he saw six 21 cubic yard dumpsters filled with items that have been removed from the house some of the items were covered in feces in October the house listed for sale again for almost $260,000 since then there was a price drop of $10,000 at the time making this video Katie and Joel are awaiting trial Joel is out on bail Katie is enjoying secure housing supplied by the state which probably smells better than the prison that she allegedly constructed for her sons now moving to my analysis here are my thoughts on a few areas that stood out to me in this case item number one it appears as though Katie's Sons desperately wanted to escape a woman who spoke to the police said that when she visited a friend who lived near the house occupied by Katie and Joel she saw the boys excessively staring out of the windows their faces were pressed against the window screens on the day they finally escaped they were covered in blood they may have been injured by glass from the broken window this must have been a terrifying experience for them especially considering how they probably had no idea what to expect one neighbor suggested that the boys looked as though they didn't even know the outside existed item number two there is not much information available about what could be going on as far as mental health and personality factors in this case neighbors said they thought that Katie was on drugs or mentally challenged but that's just their opinion based on brief interactions with her no official sources indicated anything like that there were reports that Joel would regularly mow his lawn late at night while wearing a headlamp this is strange but it does not appear to have any connection to the allegations allegedly Katie and Joel perpetrated revolting offenses like keeping Katie's Sons locked in a bedroom boarding up a window and exposing them to Hooked on Phonics in addition their hygiene was horribly inadequate one neighbor said it looked like their hair had never been brushed or cut item number three the situation with Katie and Joel has a few elements in common with the notorious Turpin family nightmare that occurred in California in that case a married couple named David and Louise Turpin had 13 children over the course of 27 years they lived in a few different places before moving to Paris California for years they kept their children separated from the outside world sometimes they put them in Chains in 2018 one of their daughters bravely escaped and called the police when officers entered the house they found that the floor was covered in 3 ft of trash and the smell was unbearable David was described as socially awkward Louise was described as having symptoms of histrionic personality disorder both of them had strong religious beliefs based on Christianity which eventually morphed into some type of Witchcraft the couple taught their children to be afraid of the outside world which created strong feelings of paranoia their children knew that they were suffering but they were terrified of strangers David and Louise had their children sleep during the day and remain awake at night to reduce the chances that neighbors would figure out what was going on as far as the parallels between the Turpin case and the case of Kati and Joel both situations involved confinement mistreatment terrible odor children off from the outside world neighbors who were not fully aware of what was going on and a dramatic Escape as far as differences clearly with the Turpin family the scale was much greater 13 children as compared to only two with Katie and Joel in addition the motivation may have been different the turpens appeared to be motivated by paranoia and religious beliefs it's not clear what motivated Katie and Joel item number four sometimes times the behavior seen in these types of cases brings up the topic of hoarding disorder or HD there's no way to know if that's what happened in this particular case but in general what is HD this disorder involves persistent difficulty discarding possessions regardless of their actual value a person with this disorder ends up in a cluttered environment HD is associated with four different personality disorders schizo tiple and paranoid from cluster a and avoidant and obsessive compulsive from cluster C the strongest Association is with avoidant personality disorder other disorders are associated with HD as well for example 75% of individuals with HD have a comorbid mood or anxiety disorder there are of course other possible explanations for cases like this outside of hoarding disorder for example social anxiety sadism laziness disgust insensitivity paranoia or psychosis in most cases despite the severity of some of these conditions people engaging in the type of behavior seen in this case would not be able to mount an effective mental health defense now moving to my final thoughts this case is a reminder that some crimes can be hidden in plain sight it can be frighteningly easy to conceal terrible acts in what is otherwise a normal neighborhood a house of horror may be a seemingly endless Nightmare on the inside what look like a normal house from the outside a neighborhood watch program probably would not have detected the alleged crime in this case although a neighborhood smell program may have had some success this case emphasizes the importance of using all of One senses to detect wrongdoing those are my thoughts in the case of Katie kotch and Joel Mankey please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always I hope you found my analysis of this topic to be informative thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

Views: 154,358

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Id: f3Xs2w4eGBA

Length: 14min 6sec (846 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 26 2023