Starved teen looked like she was an ‘8-year-old,’ say day care visitors

LINH TA ,  CHARLY HALEY   | The Des Moines Register

PERRY, Ia. — To visitors of Rays of Sunshine Daycare in Perry, the owners’ daughter seemed like a shy 8-year-old girl.

But at the time of Sabrina Ray’s death, she was actually 16 and weighed only 56 pounds, according to an autopsy report.

Her parents, Marc, 41, and Misty Ray, 40, were arrested Thursday morning after their adopted daughter was found dead in their Perry home last week, said Perry Police Chief Eric Vaughn during a news conference.

“She always looked at me and smiled and said 'Hi,'” said Brian West, a 41-year-old Dawson father who brought his two sons to the day care. “I assumed she was just a skinny 8-year-old girl.”

Two girls, ages 10 and 12, were in the room with Sabrina Ray's body when police arrived at 1708 First Ave. at about 6:30 p.m. May 12, according to criminal complaints. The 911 call came from the home, Vaughn said, although authorities haven't identified who called.

Marc and Misty Ray face two counts of child endangerment causing serious injury, one count of neglect or abandonment of a dependent person and one count of child endangerment resulting in death, related to Sabrina Ray. They were also charged with two counts of child endangerment causing serious injury and two counts of neglect or abandonment in relation to the two other girls that were found in the home.

The weight of an average-sized 16-year-old female is 115 pounds, according to Livestrong.com.

The two girls are under a physician's care. They were also adopted by the Rays. Vaughn said they are expected to recover.

A third child, a boy, was also removed from the home. Police did not share his medical condition.

Sabrina Ray's parents operated Rays of Sunshine Daycare in the home, public records show. Court documents indicate that Sabrina had either a mental or physical disability.

The official cause of death has not been released, but Vaughn said an autopsy showed evidence of severe malnutrition.

Sabrina reportedly had been adopted out of foster care, and she and her siblings were home-schooled.

Rays of Sunshine Daycare was visited by state inspectors and social workers in 2013, 2014, 2015 and last year after at least two complaints were lodged against the home, alleging inadequate nutrition for children and corporal punishment, public records show. Workers who visited reported they found no evidence of abuse at the time.

Vaughn said Perry police have also received medical and criminal mischief calls to the home.

Sabrina's parents were out of state when she died, Vaughn said.

For West, finding out about Sabrina’s death was shocking, particularly since he was friends with her parents, he said. Their families attended birthday parties for one another's children. He would hang out with Marc and they shared an interest in video games.

He said Marc and Misty notified the day care parents they were leaving for Disney World in Florida for their son’s birthday for two weeks. The day they left was the same day Sabrina’s body was found, he said.

“They seemed like outstanding people to me," West said.

Amanda Howard, 33, of Perry said she didn't notice anything amiss. She brought her son to the day care for two years. The last time she saw Sabrina was when she dropped her son off in April.

“I just thought she was a small child,” Howard said. “It really hurt me that she was abused and I didn’t pick it up.”

Both parents said that their children enjoyed going to the day care and didn’t notice anything out of place.

Now, Howard and West are planning on honoring Sabrina to raise awareness of child abuse.

The two parents are talking with Perry officials about planting a flower cherry tree in the city and including a plaque with her name on it.

They are also encouraging Perry residents to plant trees in their own lawns to remember Sabrina.

“She was a beautiful child,” Howard said. “I want to make it where people are aware of child abuse, so if something doesn’t seem right or add up, say something.”

Marc Ray was booked into jail at 11:20 a.m. Thursday, and Misty Ray was booked 20 minutes later. They're each being held on a $1 million cash-only bond, jail records show.

This case remains under investigation.

Sabrina's case appears similar to the October starvation death of Natalie Finn, a West Des Moines 16-year-old who was adopted out of foster care, home-schooled and died from starvation, and Malayia Knapp, a Des Moines teen who was adopted, home-schooled, and ran away and called police after she was severely abused.

State Sen. Matt McCoy, a West Des Moines lawmaker who has been spearheading an inquiry into these child death cases, said Tuesday he was told by a child-protective worker within the Iowa Department of Human Services that Ray was found dead in her family’s basement.

The worker also told him food reportedly was used in the house as an inducement or punishment, he told the Register.

“The worker said the case was just like Natalie Finn. Said she would be fired if anyone knew she was talking to me,” McCoy said.

Child care licensing reports and complaints are considered public under state law. However, child-abuse investigations are typically confidential except in death and near-death cases. 

McCoy was told that Sabrina was adopted out of foster care and home-schooled. Lynn Ubben, the superintendent for Perry Community Schools, also told the Register that she believed Sabrina and her siblings were home-schooled. Sabrina was not enrolled in the Perry school district, Ubben said.

State child care licensing records show that in October 2013, a complainant said there was improper discipline in the Ray daycare, improper supervision and inadequate food.

Earl Crow, a Story County worker for Human Services who does spot-compliance checks, said two workers at the agency visited the daycare that month and found no evidence to support the claim.

A second similar complaint was made in April 2014. But Crow wrote in a Human Services report that he found no evidence of inadequate food or abuse in an unannounced spot check of the day care. "The cupboards and refrigerator were both stocked with appropriate and nutritious supplies for a healthy diet," Crow wrote in the 2014 report.

It's unclear whether workers visited the entire home or just the part of the home that was a day care.