Mom Shanda Vander Ark 'expressionless' as she is sentenced to life for torturing teen son Timothy Fe

Publish date: 2024-03-26

THE mother who killed her teenage son by torturing him with ice baths and starvation has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Shanda Vander Ark, 44, was convicted in December of first-degree murder and first-degree child abuse of her 15-year-old son, Timothy Ferguson.

Timothy was found dead at his family's home in Norton Shores, Michigan, about 39 miles west of Grand Rapids, on July 6, 2022.

The teen, who weighed just 69 pounds when he died, had autism and was speech and motor impaired.

Vander Ark's older son, Paul Ferguson, 21, participated in the harrowing torture by feeding his brother hot sauce, putting him in ice baths, and depriving him of sleep and food.

Ferguson, who pleaded guilty to first-degree child abuse last month, turned on his mother, saying she directed him to abuse his younger brother.

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The 21-year-old will be sentenced on February 26.

Vander Ark sat expressionless for most of Tuesday's sentencing, only briefly wiping tears from her face.

When given the opportunity to speak, she shook her head, declining.

SIBLINGS SPEAK OUT

Timothy's older siblings, Millie and Nolan Ferguson, traveled from two states to make impact statements about their little brother.

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"I want the world to know that Timothy was wanted," Millie said before Judge Matthew Kacel announced Vander Ark's sentence, according to local ABC affiliate WZZM.

"If not by her, then by me. He was loved by me.

"I regret not hugging more, and teasing him so much, and not telling him I love him more often.

"I regret not dancing with him at my brother's wedding the last time I saw him. These are the things that I can't remedy now.

"There's no fixing what's been done. That's my regret - that I couldn't protect him when he needed me most," she said.

Millie went on to discuss the time that she and her siblings were taken away from their parents by Child Protective Services.

"The victim of this crime can't speak for himself," she said.

"I want the woman who killed my little brother to face the highest punishment possible."

Meanwhile, Nolan remembered his little brother as "one sweet little blue-eyed boy."

"I can't have my brother back. She shouldn't have her freedom back," Nolan said, referring to his mother.

JUDGE RIPS VANDER ARK

Matt Roberts, the prosecuting attorney, said that Vander Ark did not look at her children while they read their statements to the court, reported WZZM.

"She had stopped thinking of her children as human beings," said Roberts.

Vander Ark's attorney, Fred Johnson, argued that Vander Ark was a single mother who did her best.

"This is a survivor," Johnson said.

"A person who pulled herself up by her bootstraps. We're not looking at evil; we're looking at sick."

During the trial, Judge Kacel did not allow cameras to show the teen's body.

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"I am choosing not to remember your son dead, looking like a holocaust victim.

"I'm choosing to remember him like that," he said as he showed a younger photo of Timothy to the courtroom.

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