A Wisconsin woman will spend years behind bars after she abetted the starving and imprisonment of a 14-year-old autistic girl.
Kayla Stemler, 28, was sentenced to eight years in prison on Monday after admitting her role in the horrific neglect of a 14-year-old girl who was found emaciated in August 2025 weighing just 35 pounds – less than she had weighed at the age of four.
Stemler lived with her partner Savanna Lefever, LeFever’s mother Melissa Goodman, and her husband Walter. All four adults lived with the victim and have been charged in connection with the case.
Stemler pleaded no contest to three charges stemming from the girl’s mistreatment and following her stint in prison will serve another three years under extended supervision and two years of probation.
However, Stemler’s preexisting jail credit will shave 287 days – about 9.5 months – off her prison stay.
The judge also ordered that she have no contact with the girl, her family or co-defendants, undergo a mental-health assessment and follow treatment and medication requirements.
Before imposing the sentence, judge Vince Biskupic branded the case ‘jaw-dropping,’ ‘stunning’ and ‘sickening’ as he confronted Stemler over the years of sheer cruelty and suffering endured by the child.
Kayla Stemler, 27, LeFever’s partner, was sentenced to eight years behind bars on Monday after she pleaded no contest on May 7 to chronic neglect of a child causing great bodily harm, chronic neglect of a child causing emotional damage and false imprisonment, all as a party to a crime
The investigation began on Aug. 21, 2025 after Goodman called 911 to request assistance for his daughter in his trailer claiming that the child was ‘just laying there eyes open all creepy,’ telling the dispatcher the child had been in a comatose state. That was when they uncovered the trainwreck of abuse the teenager had been subject to
He said Stemler had ‘thousands of opportunities to intervene’.
Stemler confirmed during the hearing that there were times during the five-year period of neglect when she left the home to stay with her own family.
Biskupic called it ‘incomprehensible’ that she could have witnessed and participated in the neglect without seeking help.
‘You chose, whether for selfish reasons or acting in a blind fashion, to continue the status quo for this child,’ he told her.
Stemler had pleaded no contest on May 7 to chronic neglect of a child causing great bodily harm, chronic neglect of a child causing emotional damage and false imprisonment, all as a party to a crime.
The case concerns the treatment of a girl who was found in critical condition at an Oneida home on August 21, 2025.
According to the criminal complaint, the victim’s father, Walter Goodman, called 911 that day and reported that his daughter was lethargic and appeared to be alternating between vomiting and being ‘comatose.’
When first responders arrived at Goodman’s trailer, they found the teenager severely underweight and malnourished, her appearance – skeletal.
All four individuals lived with the teen victim and have been charged in connection with the case
The teenagers temperature was 88.3 degrees, and her collarbone, ribs, hips and cheekbones were visibly prominent, according to investigators.
She was taken to hospital, where doctors diagnosed severe malnutrition and treated her for respiratory failure, cardiac dysfunction, severe acute hepatitis, pancreatitis, hypothermia and hypoglycemia. Investigators said doctors were also concerned about possible organ failure.
The girl’s condition was the culmination of years of alleged neglect.
Prosecutors said she had stopped attending school after her father gained custody of her in 2020. She was not permitted to make friends and was barred from leaving her bedroom without supervision.
A blanket had reportedly been nailed over the bedroom window, preventing her from looking outside.
The girl was allegedly given limited bathroom access and was not allowed to speak except into a surveillance camera permanently mounted in her bedroom, according to a criminal complaint previously reviewed by the Daily Mail.
Prosecutors said the girl did not know that the COVID-19 pandemic had ended when she was rescued in 2025.
The allegations concerning her food were particularly significant in the case.
Melissa Goodman, 52, appeared by video from jail in a wheelchair on July 1 and pleaded no contest to the same three felony charges, the rest of the household faces, including chronic neglect causing great bodily harm and false imprisonment
Several refrigerators and freezers in the home were stocked with food, according to prosecutors, but in a vast contrast, the teenager was severely malnourished.
Investigators recovered text messages among the adults in the house that allegedly discussed what the girl was allowed to eat and drink and how she should be punished.
Some messages referred to the girl as ‘stupid’ and ‘dummy,’ according to the criminal complaint.
Recovered text messages from Melissa Goodman’s phone allegedly shows her instructing family members to remove the girl’s bed, limit her access to water and ‘slap her azz again,’ per the complaint.
Even after her rescue, the teenager’s condition remains severe.
Relatives said she was initially unable to walk through a store without assistance and was so small that she required a booster seat.
During her hospitalization, she lacked the strength to turn on a faucet or shower and used the wall for support when walking from her bed to the bathroom.
The victim later told hospital staff that she believed it had been two to four years since she had last played outside, according to the criminal complaint.
She also wrote notes asking: ‘I need a snack,’ ‘Can I watch TV?’, ‘I need to poop,’ and ‘I can’t breathe.’
A photo of a pair of seemingly loving parents before Walter, left, and Melissa Goodman, right, faced multiple counts of chronic neglect of a child
Once she regained enough strength to communicate by writing, the girl repeatedly scribbled messages including ‘I’m hungry’ and asked when she would be allowed to eat, Daily Mail previously reported.
After she was given chocolate pudding, she reportedly said, ‘My dad will be so mad.’
When asked why her father would be upset, she replied, ‘He doesn’t like when I eat this much.’
She told nurses that she had sometimes gone weeks or months without being showered.
During Stemler’s sentencing hearing, the court heard an audio-recorded victim impact statement from the teenager.
She questioned how Stemler could see a vulnerable child suffering and choose not to intervene.
‘I was never worthless; I was never a burden,’ the girl said. ‘I was a child who deserved to be loved.’
Stemler’s family submitted statements portraying her as a hard worker who had been brought into a controlling and abusive environment after moving into the Goodman household.
The court nevertheless found that Stemler had a responsibility to intervene.
She is the second adult to be sentenced in the case.
Melissa Goodman was sentenced on July 1 to 15 years in prison followed by 10 years of extended supervision after pleading no contest to the same three charges as Stemler.
During Goodman’s sentencing, Judge Mitchell J Metropulos described the crimes as exceptionally serious and said photographs of the girl’s condition reminded him of images his father had seen after serving in World War II.
LeFever is scheduled for a plea hearing at 9 am August 28. According to a plea agreement filed August 19, she plans to plead no contest.
Walter Goodman has pleaded not guilty. His next hearing is scheduled for October 30.
The teenager was removed from the home after her hospitalization and is continuing her recovery with support from her family.
Relatives have described her progress as remarkable following years of isolation and severe malnutrition.
The case remains ongoing as prosecutors pursue proceedings against the remaining defendants.
