Inset: Melissa Goodman (Outagamie County Jail). Background: The Wisconsin neighborhood where Goodman’s stepdaughter was found after nearly starving to death (Google Maps).
A Wisconsin woman has been sentenced to prison for her role in the severe abuse and neglect of her 14-year-old stepdaughter, who investigators said weighed only 35 pounds when she was discovered and was “very, very close to death.”
“You really ruined my childhood, and it hurts that you did,” the girl said in an audio statement played Wednesday at Melissa Goodman’s sentencing hearing, according to local Fox affiliate WLUK. Goodman, 52, was ordered to serve 15 years in prison, followed by 10 years of extended supervision.
In the statement, the teen accused Goodman of cutting her off from relatives who cared about her. “You isolated me from my family, the only ones who actually cared,” she said. “You had the choice to help when I needed it, but instead you joined in on the abuse and neglect. So I hope you have fun in jail because that’s where you need to be.”
Goodman was among four adults charged in the case and became the first to be convicted. In May, she pleaded no contest to chronic neglect of a child resulting in great bodily harm, chronic neglect of a child resulting in emotional damage, and false imprisonment.
The others charged are the girl’s father, Walter Goodman; her adult stepsister, Savanna LeFever; and LeFever’s partner, Kayla Stemler. All faced similar chronic neglect allegations. Walter Goodman is expected back in court next week as competency evaluations continue. LeFever has a pretrial conference set for July 20, while Stemler is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 24.
Outagamie County Assistant District Attorney Julie DuQuaine told the court Wednesday that although the victim’s health has improved, the effects of the prolonged starvation and neglect are expected to remain with her for life. Goodman apologized during the hearing and said she did not realize the situation had become so dire.
The judge presiding over the case described the girl’s condition at the time of the abuse as comparable to that of a Holocaust victim.
“My dad was a World War II veteran who served during the Holocaust,” the judge said, according to local ABC affiliate WBAY. “And I’m sure he never would have thought his son would see pictures that resemble what he saw during the war.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, Walter Goodman called 911 in August 2025 and reported that his daughter was autistic, had not eaten in “the last four [or] five days,” and now appeared to be “comatose,” according to court documents.
“She’s just laying there with her eyes open all creepy,” Walter Goodman told the dispatcher. He added that the victim “does a lot of self-harm, so her legs look horrible.” He also said that his daughter was “underweight” because “she just don’t eat.”
Upon arriving, first responders said the victim appeared severely underweight and malnourished, noting that “her collar bone, rib cage, hip, and cheek bones were very prominent, and that she looked to be the size of a 6- to 8-year-old child.”
Left to right: Walter Goodman, Savanna LeFever, and Kayla Stemler (Outagamie County Sheriff’s Office).
The victim was transported to St. Vincent Hospital in Green Bay. However, due to the severity of her condition, she was soon airlifted to the Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee for more specialized treatment. Medical personnel determined that she had suffered a “very large bruise” on her forehead, had a glucose level of 24, a temperature of 100.6, was hypothermic, and was suffering from multiple bedsores. She was diagnosed with “severe malnourishment” and doctors said they were highly concerned that she could suffer catastrophic organ failure within 72 hours.
Doctors also noted that there were no medical records for the victim from the last five years, which is about the time her mother went to jail and she began living with her father, stepmother, and adult stepsister.
Walter Goodman told authorities his daughter had been sick and “just throwing up” for about the last six days, but said he had not sought medical assistance, calling her condition “normal kid stuff.” He explained that the victim’s mother was diabetic, and while the victim had never been tested for the disease, he thought her sugar might be low.
“So I gave her a little bit of Wild Cherry Pepsi,” Walter Goodman told police.
During the initial investigation, Walter Goodman told police he put a camera in his daughter’s bedroom “because she self-harms” and “picks at herself.” He also said he had installed an alarm on the victim’s door because she did not sleep, claiming she would “stay awake for 1 to 3 weeks at a time.” Walter Goodman also blamed his daughter’s severe weight loss on her lack of sleep, not a lack of eating.
However, when police interviewed one of Walter Goodman’s friends, he recalled a time in August when he was at the home fixing a four-wheeler and the victim came out and asked him what he was doing. The friend said this “irritated” Walter Goodman, who told her to keep quiet before allegedly making several disturbing comments. From the affidavit:
He heard [Walter Goodman] make comments like, “If she misbehaves, I’m not going to feed her today.” [The friend] said he told [Walter Goodman] that he can’t do that, and [Walter Goodman] said, “Well I keep her locked up in her bedroom with a camera on her, and that’s where she stays.” [The friend] said he told [Walter Goodman] that he can’t lock a kid in a bedroom, that was abuse. [The friend] indicated that at times when [Walter Goodman] brought [the victim] to his house, [Walter Goodman] would tell [the victim] to “Shut the f— up,” and “Sit there and don’t say nothing.”
When the friend confronted Walter Goodman about how he treats his daughter, the friend claimed Walter Goodman went on a diatribe about the child, saying, “If I could leave her somewhere in the woods, I’d leave her.” The friend also recalled Walter Goodman telling the girl, “I wish I could kill you.”
Police also spoke to the victim’s teacher from 2019 to 2020, who allegedly said she remembered the victim being “friendly and talkative” and could not recall anything about her being autistic or enrolled in any special education programs. Rather, the teacher said the victim had been “a healthy normal third-grade student, who interacted appropriately with her peers and staff.”
Authorities say LeFever and Stemler would often look after the victim while Walter Goodman and Melissa Goodman were out of town so that another child in their care could get cancer treatment. During those times, police said, LeFever and Stemler continued to abuse and neglect the victim.
During a previous court hearing, DuQuaine, the prosecutor, referred to the investigation as “the most egregious case of child neglect I think I have ever seen in my nearly 25-year career,” according to a report from Green Bay Fox affiliate WLUK. The prosecutors emphasized that the victim was “very, very close to death — 35 pounds at 14 years old,” when first responders found her.
Outagamie County Court Commissioner Brian Figy, who presided over the November 2025 hearing, reportedly called the allegations “incredibly disturbing.”
“It’s alleged that the minor child was frankly living in a house of horrors,” he said.
