Susan Rae Helton is a 53-year-old foster mother from Texas who was convicted in late January on four counts of injury to a child, causing severe bodily harm. The victims were her own two adopted children, a teenage boy and a girl.
In 2018, Child Protective Services received reports of abuse by Helton due of the poor conditions of the teenagers. The 14-year-old only weighed 48 pounds, while the 13-year-old weighed only 50 pounds.
🚨⚖️ New Braunfels Woman Sentenced to 40 Years for Starving and Caging Adopted Children ⚖️🚨
Comal County, Texas — A Comal County jury has convicted Susan Rae Helton, 53, of New Braunfels, on four counts of Injury to a Child Causing Serious Bodily Injury involving two of her… pic.twitter.com/joVKaTg2pL
— Texan Report (@TexanReport) February 6, 2026
Over the five years they lived with Helton, each child gained only six pounds and grew just three inches. Such minimal growth is unnatural for a growing teenager, and indicates severe level of ill treatment.
Multiple testimonies and evidence show Helton starved the children and denied them the basic amount of food. They were also confined in cages secured with baby gates.
The kids spent most of their time there, sometimes overnight, or even for weeks at a time. Helton herself admitted to the girl sleeping in the cage for a total of 18 months during a cross-examination.
According to Helton, she did this because she wanted some free time for herself. Plus, she claimed, the children were ‘Sugar-seeking’ and stole food, as reported by Law & Crime.
if your child is hungry and you refuse to feed them for six hours, that actually is child abuse. I know that, as a survivor of child abuse! get help. pic.twitter.com/1OqvMmUrIa
— elly belle 🔮🍉🇵🇸 (they/them) (@literElly) January 3, 2021
This is not the extent of her neglect. In a press release, the DA office informed, “Helton had been a foster care mother and over the years had adopted eight children who had been prior victims of child abuse or neglect.”
All of the children were home-schooled, and Helton did not keep up with regular doctor appointments. Following her arrest, the children were provided with better care, and the two victims gained eight pounds in less than a month.
In late January, Helton was sentenced to 20 years for each child she abused, with the terms totaling 40 years after being stacked together. She also must serve at least half of her sentence before she can even become eligible for parole.
The abuse was so severe in this case that Dell Children’s Medical Center’s Dr. Shona Rabon claimed this was one of the worst cases of malnutrition she has ever come across.
Comal County jury convicts New Braunfels woman of serious injury to adopted children https://t.co/FgXYTYCeID
— NB Herald-Zeitung (@NewBraunfelsHZ) February 6, 2026
The prosecutor, Jessica Frazier, summed up Helton’s crime perfectly: “Susan Helton took possession of these children [and was] supposed to be the forever home they yearned for…”
She later added, “And what did she do? She caged them like animals. She punished them on purpose. She punished them by taking away the basic needs for a child.”
