In a turn of events, America’s so-called ‘most inbred’ family has faced separation as three members have been relocated from their decrepit residence into state care, according to details shared by the Daily Mail.
The Whittaker family gained online recognition in 2020 after a documentary highlighted their challenging lives, marked by severe physical and mental issues, in the small settlement of Odd, West Virginia, located 75 miles from Charleston.
This family’s origins trace back to a pair of identical twin brothers whose offspring intermarried, eventually leading to the birth of 15 children. The surviving members form what is known today as the Whittaker family.
Current members include Betty, Larry, Danny ‘Ray’, Lorene, and her son Timmy, who had been residing together in a rundown compound consisting of a four-room house with a new metal addition, several trailers, and an outhouse.
In a recent check-in, Betty, 73, revealed to the Daily Mail that Ray, 72, Lorene, 79, and Timmy, 46, were taken from their home by West Virginia’s adult protective services and relocated to new accommodations last September.
The trio was absent from the modest family home, where Betty, 69, Larry, and several family dogs continue to live.
The trio, who have serious mental and physical problems, appeared unable to fully speak and could communicate only through odd words, grunts or noises when the Daily Mail paid a previous visit.
They now remain under the state’s guardianship, but detail of their cases are confidential.
Betty Whittaker, 73, spoke to the Daily Mail from the family’s cabin in Odd, West Virginia this week, revealing two of her siblings and nephew were taken by Adult Protective Services in September
Betty and her brother Larry, 69, say they have been left in the dark over their relatives’ whereabouts
Speaking from their broken-down cabin, Betty and Larry said they have not seen or spoken to their siblings and nephew since they were taken away.
An emotional Betty told how she helped her mother Gracie raise her younger siblings and that she ‘missed’ them and Timmy since ‘the welfare people came and got ’em four or five weeks ago’.
‘They said they were helping them, and they couldn’t live here no more… I miss them a lot, I raised them,’ she said.
Larry claimed they had been kept in the dark over how Ray, Lorene and Timmy were doing and where they are now living.
‘I’ve been staying at home, waiting on a phone call, but that’s all I know. They haven’t called or let me know nothing. They won’t tell us where they at,’ he said.
Larry said some content creators posting viral videos of the family’s life on social media were to blame for ‘getting the kids taken away’.
He claimed adult protective services had warned them not to give any further interviews, adding: ‘There’s too much sh** out there, they watching.
‘People out there making money off them [the videos], and they don’t like it, they told us don’t talk to nobody.
The Daily Mail first visited the Whittakers in 2023 and was welcomed by several family members including Betty (center), Timmy, 46, (left) and Lorene, 79, (right) – both of whom are now under the state’s guardianship
Ray Whittaker, 72, who can only communicate via barks and grunts, was also removed from the home by officials from West Virginia’s adult protective services
‘It’s a lot going on, people calling round, we just got tired of it. That’s why I don’t go out, I don’t talk to nobody,’ he added.
Inside the Whittakers’ home, insects were seen crawling over a kitchen surface as Betty and Larry cooked sausages and beans on a gas-powered stove.
There was little in the way of decoration or niceties except for a calendar, still set to March, and a loud movie or TV show was blaring from a small satellite TV mounted on the wall.
Outside, the ramshackle property, nestled on a small creek, was surrounded by random household items, a broken-down chicken coop and piles of trash including old tires and beer cans.
Towels were drying on a makeshift laundry line near to a baseball hoop, a picnic table and a small BBQ.
On the porch, where the family-of-five would often sit together, there were Halloween skeleton decorations as well as a collection of delicate ornaments, including Christmas angels, perched on the blue-painted railings.
Betty suggested she did not know why Ray, Lorene and Timmy were taken away by state officials.
Larry believes viral videos shared by content creators of the family’s life on social media were to blame for ‘getting the kids taken away’
When the Daily Mail caught up with the family on Tuesday, the porch at their ramshackle home was cluttered with Halloween decorations, ornaments, and discarded items
The family homestead has several rundown vehicles and property, including a trailer and an outhouse
But their removal came shortly after a protective court order was dropped against Larry’s daughter, Betty Jo ‘BJ’ Whittaker Rocha, 47, who had been staying at the Whittaker home.
In an August 27 video on the Whittaker Family YouTube page, Betty Sr accused her niece of ‘always being on drugs’, hitting her, Larry and their nephew Timmy, hassling her for money and locking their landline phone in her camper van.
A day later, Betty filed an application for a protective order against BJ, but it was closed on September 4 after Betty failed to attend a hearing for it.
Weeks earlier, BJ was charged with one felony count of fraudulent schemes linked to the selling of stolen copper wire to a local recycling firm, according to court documents obtained by the Daily Mail.
Court papers filed at Raleigh County Magistrate Court reveal BJ made almost $3,000 between July and August selling 1,010 pounds of the stolen copper. A judgment of preliminary hearing was later waived by a judge.
In May, BJ was caught on camera stealing gas worth $40 from an address in Rhodell, West Virginia, alongside her father, Larry, according to a criminal complaint.
Father and daughter were charged with petit larceny and conspiracy against the state.
The conspiracy charges were dropped under a plea agreement, with both pleading guilty to petit larceny. BJ paid a $226 case charge, while Larry was hit for $281.
BJ hit the headlines last March, when she admitted to lying that Larry was dead to turn a quick buck.
In a clip posted by Mark Laita, the filmmaker whose videos first shone a light on the Whittakers, Larry appears alive, apparently unaware of rumors that he was dead.
Betty is pictured in 2023 with Lorene and Ray who have serious mental and physical problems, appear unable to fully speak and communicate only through odd words, grunts or noises
BJ also appears on camera and admitted to the scam, in which she pocketed $1,000 for her dad’s ‘funeral’ before admitting she needed ‘help for my drug addiction’.
She was spotted driving a Chrysler Town and Country van that was donated to the family, along with supplies of propane gas.
When she spotted reporters, she dashed inside the Whittakers’ home with dad Larry. They did not open the door when approached again by the Daily Mail.
Asked about Ray, Lorene and Timmy Whittaker being taken into state care, a spokesman for the West Virginia Department of Human Services said it is ‘aware of the situation’, but declined to share further information due to the ‘ongoing nature of the matter’.
The modern-day Whittakers stem from two sets of first cousins who got married.
The bloodline continued with two identical twin brothers, John and Henry Whittaker born in 1897, whose children got married and had 15 offspring.
A set of twin brothers sparked the family’s history with the children of Henry and John Whittaker getting married and having their first child in 1937
Aileen Violet Whittaker born in 1937 was the first child of first cousins Gracie and John Whittaker
John married his first cousin Ada Riggs and they had nine children, including Gracie Irene Whittaker, who was born in 1920.
John’s brother Henry married Sally Burton and they had seven children, including John Emory Whittaker, born in 1913.
First cousins Gracie and John married in November 1935 and had 15 children.
Aileen was the first, born in 1937. She married and had a son called Frankie followed by another son, Emery Lee, a year later, but he tragically died of pneumonia.
Barbra Whittaker was born in September 1940 and did not marry before she died in October 2008.
Nannie Lou was born in 1942 and married her husband William, who died in 2007.
She remarried a man called Leonard, who died around December 2022. She died in May 2023.
Connie, born in 1943, still lives in the area with her husband, James.
Outside, the ramshackle property was surrounded by random household items, a broken-down chicken coop and piles of trash including old tires and beer cans
The family’s property is littered with dilapidated trailers
Freddie Lee Whittaker was born in 1944 and died in May 2013 following a long illness.
Lorene Whittaker was born in 1946 and had one son, Timmy, in 1979. It is not known who Timmy’s father is.
Mary Madeline Whittaker was born in 1948, and died the following year.
John Wade Whittaker was born in 1950 and died in 2022, a father of five children who had several grandchildren and one great-grandson.
Whittaker matriarch Betty Ann was born in 1952 and reportedly promised her mother she would not marry so she could care for her 14 siblings.
Danny Ray Whittaker, known as Ray, was born a year after Betty. Larry Whittaker and Kenneth Whittaker were born in 1956, and 1957.
Judy Kay Whittaker was born in 1959 and Michael Stevie Whittaker arrived a year later.
Michael died in July 2001, aged 40, while Judy died in August 2021 – though it is unclear how they both died.
