Hours after her father called 911 claiming a tree knocked her out, Malinda Hoagland died weighing just 50 pounds with six broken bones, numerous lacerations, bruises, and liver damage leading to the horrific discovery of her living conditions — which her brother did not endure.
Rendell Hoagland, 52, and his girlfriend Cindy Warren, 45, are being held at Chester County Prison, just outside of Philadelphia, as District Attorney Christopher de Barrena-Sarobe announced on Thursday he will be seeking the death penalty for them both.
The couple, who were first arrested in May after the death of Rendell’s daughter, were initially charged with attempted homicide, with their bail set at $1 million cash.
Those charges were later upgraded to first-, second-, and third-degree murder, as well as involuntary servitude, per WGAL. Additional charges include kidnapping, assault, and attempted criminal homicide. They are now being held without bail.
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Malinda Hoagland was 12 years old when she died just hours after her father called 911 and reported that she’d been knocked out when she hit a tree while riding her bike. The truth was much more horrific, leading to his and his girlfriend’s eventual arrest.
Malinda died just hours after that phone call. An autopsy determined her cause of death as starvation and multiple blunt force injuries. She had six broken bones, and approximately 75 bruises, contusions, ulcers, and pressure sores at the time of her death, as well as suffering liver damage, according to the report.
“Her injuries were simply inexplicable. And then, as we investigated, a preliminary number of cellphone videos clearly showed that Malinda was terrorized by the defendants,” said Barrena-Sarobe, who described the alleged abuse as “ongoing” and “systematic.”
Investigators uncovered video from the defendants’ cellphones as well as security cameras inside the home that they allege showed a consistent pattern of abuses extending back months, including Malinda allegedly being handcuffed to furniture, including during her online schooling.
According to Barrena-Sarobe, Warren’s nine-year-old son also lived in the home, but he does not appear to have been subjected to the same abuses that Malinda was, in fact appearing to be completely healthy and unharmed.
Alleged Text messages between the couple detail that Malinda was being punished for things like forgetting chores, school work, “stealing” food, and even for not smiling during her Zoom classes. Investigators say a pantry in the home was padlocked to keep her from food and she was forced to do calisthenics for hours as punishment, per Crime Online.
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In their investigation, police learned Malinda had been pulled from public schooled and enrolled in an online school. “She was virtually showing up on camera based on some of the videos that we reviewed, but she was shackled below from where the camera was,” said the DA, per WCAU.
The DA said the couple subjected her to “evil and torment that no child should ever have to endure and they did it for months.”
Dr. Catherine Van Vooren, the superintendent of the public school Malinda attended before her parents pulled her in December 2023 told WCAU that the “staff diligently reported concerns about her welfare to the state agency that receives and manages concerns.”
It was shortly after that Malinda was pulled from the school. “This news shakes our entire school community, and we are deeply saddened and upset by the horrific details of the abuse this child suffered,” Van Vooren continued.
As reported by WCAU, Warren had previously been sentenced in a prior child abuse case dating back to 2007. There, authorities said she lied about her then-husband McKinley Warren Jr. abusing their 3-year-old son and her 2-year-old stepdaughter, and refused to say that he caused his daughter’s death.
She was sentenced in 2009 to three to seven years for endangering the welfare of a child in that case.
If you are experiencing or witness child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. If you believe a child is in immediate danger, call 911.
