COUPLE SENTENCED IN FENTRESS COURT TO 10 YEARS FOR CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT
In Fentress County, a Michigan couple, Jason and Jessica Klimp, pleaded guilty on October 27 to aggravated child abuse and neglect after their two adopted daughters were found severely malnourished and underdeveloped. They were sentenced to ten years in prison with no parole, to be served in Michigan after crediting roughly 1.5 years already spent in Fentress County Jail, and were permanently barred from any contact with the victims.
The case began in February 2024 when authorities responded to the couple’s home after a 12-year-old adopted girl collapsed; paramedics noted her body temperature at 95.6 degrees, purple skin, white nails, and shivering, prompting a helicopter transport despite the parents’ initial reluctance due to cost concerns. Investigations revealed the girls, fostered since age 3, were fed only from bottles because they allegedly “ate too much and would get sick,” and as punishment for bed-wetting, they slept without covers in plastic totes in a chilly 60-degree basement.
A welfare check on the home’s seven other children—four biological and three additional adopted—led to a referral to the Department of Children’s Services, while the couple’s defense argued they wouldn’t have called for help if guilty, though prior church reports indicated the girl had collapsed the previous day.
