psychanddeath:

On 4th April, 2009, Christina Choate went to check on her 13-year-old brother, Christian. She would find him, dead, locked in a dog cage. Christina went to get her stepmother, Kimberly Kubina, but in response, Kimberly told her to perform CPR. Christina said she pumped his chest and used a mattress air pump to push air into his body but to no avail as Christian was already dead. The police weren’t called. Instead, their father, Riley Choate, made Christina wrap Christian in trash bags and a blanket and then her father and stepmother drove him to a location where they buried him in a shallow grave and placed a bible on his chest. For two years, it was thought that Christian had run away as that’s what his father and stepmother told people. The school system, DHS, family, or any one for that matter, never questioned where Christian really was.

His sister, Christina, eventually made contact with her biological mother and told her that Christian was dead. His biological mother called 911. The police made contact with Christian’s father and he lead them to his makeshift grave.

Christian’s life was far from an actual life, he was subject to brutal torture, neglect and abuse. He lived a life of hell and even wrote about his experiences, claiming he wanted to die. He just wanted his family to like him, to be able to play outside like other kids, and just be a normal kid. Sadly, none of that came true, and his family considered him a dog and treated him as such by locking him inside a dog cage until he finally died. When he would ask for something to do, he would be handed paper and a pencil to write. Christian wrote about his abuse and torture in extreme detail, as a way way to occupy himself. His stepmother, Kimberly would often write a topic at the top of the paper that she wanted Christian to write about. Christian wrote about how he would have to steal food just to eat, and even have toilet accidents in his clothes because he was locked in a cage for such long periods of time. 

On the day before Christian died, he refused to eat. His father became enraged and punched him in his head with full force several times before throwing him back in the cage, like a dog. On April 5, 2009, his sister told police she woke up and tried to feed her brother some cereal, but he refused, so she slapped him across the face and put him in the cage. She continued to check on him and eventually noticed he wasn’t breathing. Christian eventually died in early 2009 of blunt force trauma injuries and a skull fracture.

In 2013, Christian’s father, Riley Choate was sentenced, a month after he pleaded guilty, to felony neglect and other charges related to the death of Christian. He was sentenced to 80 years in prison. Christian’s step-mother, Kimberly Kubina, pleaded guilty to neglect. She is due to spend between 25 and 35 years in prison. In return for the guilty pleas, prosecutors dropped charges of murder, battery, criminal confinement and obstruction of justice.