A foster couple from Stanley, North Dakota, has been charged with murder after the death of their three-year-old foster daughter who had autism.
Prosecutors say she was abused for months and died from blunt-force injuries.
The foster parents—Jamie Johnson, 44, and Raymond Johnson, 62—were arrested on June 6.
A foster couple allegedly abused and killed their three-year-old foster daughter who had autism
Highlights
- A foster couple in North Dakota faces murder charges after allegedly abusing their 3-year-old foster daughter with autism.
- Surveillance allegedly showed the foster mother hitting the child with a wooden spoon and punching her, while the foster father also kicked and hit her.
- The toddler was punished for crying or eating slowly, often forced to sleep in a cot and violently disciplined for minor behaviors.
- The foster mother admitted in texts to feeling frustrated and described the child as a "total brat" with special needs and frequent screaming fits.
- The foster parents are held on a $1 million bond and await a court hearing scheduled for July 24.
Image credits: North Dakota Bureau of Investigation
They now face charges of murder, child abuse involving a victim under six, and domestic violence involving a victim under 12.
They are both being held on a $1 million bond and are scheduled to appear in court again on July 24.
According to police and court documents, the child was brought to a local hospital on March 19. She had been in the foster couple’s care for only a few months.
She was unresponsive, covered in bruises, and doctors could not save her. The medical examiner later confirmed that she died from a severe head injury caused by blunt force.
“On March 19, 2025, at approximately 5:39 p.m., officers from the Stanley Police Department and Mountrail County Sheriff’s Office responded to a medical emergency in the 300 block of Adeline Drive, Stanley, for a reported three-year-old female who was not breathing,” the Stanley Police Department said in a statement.
Image credits: Stanley Police Department
An investigation led by the North Dakota Bureau of Investigation revealed disturbing details.
Surveillance footage from inside the Johnsons’ home reportedly showed the foster mother punching the toddler in the head, hitting her with a wooden spoon, and yanking her by her hair so violently that the child’s head struck the floor and furniture.
The affidavit states Jamie can be seen striking the girl “with a spoon in the abdomen, chest and on the face.”
The footage also showed her covering the girl’s mouth when she cried.
Raymond Johnson, although seen as the “nicer” of the two by other children in the home, was also seen on camera kicking and hitting the toddler in the head, according to reports.
The toddler was allegedly given “owies” as punishment for “infractions,” an affidavit reviewed by Law & Crime stated. These include crying and taking too long to chew her food.
She was also forced to sleep in a cot inside the Johnsons’ Mountrail County home.
Image credits: Google Earth
Other children in the home told investigators that the toddler was often punished for crying or for how she ate.
Jamie would become angry when the child took too long to chew her food or left food in her mouth.
She would allegedly place the toddler up on a counter after she did something the defendant didn’t like and start hitting her in the head.
“You need to be careful with my mom. She’s the meanest one,” one of the foster children told investigators.
The kids told police that their foster father “knew mom was punching, hitting, kicking, and choking, and watched it happen.”
Raymond Johnson was seen as the ‘nicer’ of the two foster parents
Image credits: North Dakota Bureau of Investigation
On one occasion, Jamie allegedly beat the child so hard that the girl passed out and had to be revived with an ice pack.
On another, the girl resisted and bit her abuser’s hand, which was followed by multiple closed-fist punches from the foster mom.
In text messages to friends, Jamie admitted she often felt frustrated with the child and described her as a “total brat.”
She also suggested the girl had “special needs” and was possibly autistic.
“The crying and screaming makes me a nervous wreck,” she allegedly texted. “She screams, throws herself on the ground, beats her head against floor or wall, pulls her hair and scratches/pinches herself … If we tell her no about something or tell her to go sit down. All hell breaks loose.”
“Honestly, if I knew how she was I might not have taken her,” she wrote in one message.
“It’s not easy, I get pretty crabby sometimes and then I feel like s—t for it,” Jamie told her friends.
Image credits: Police Archives
The foster mom told the investigators that the girl would regularly “self-inflict” injuries due to her learning disability.
She said the toddler “would cause marks on [her] body by self-inflicting scratches and by hitting [her] head on walls,” according to Law & Crime.
But home security footage and interviews with the couple’s other foster children revealed a different picture.
Both Jamie and Raymond Johnson have been booked into the Mountrail County Correctional Center and await their court hearing.