In October 2006, she moved home with her father. With all the excitement surrounding her pregnancy, Richards longed to be home with her parents and three siblings. "But there was no sign of anything when she was living here that she wasn't excited about having a baby." "I think he was really happy about it, and he knew how much I love grandchildren, so that made him all the more excited," Schottel said. Waller, she said, also was excited about the prospect of becoming a father. Schottel said Richards seemed happy to be having a baby. But when we found out, I began taking her to see a doctor." "But that's not that unusual, considering she was less than a month or so along - a few weeks at most. The week Richards moved in, she discovered she was pregnant. Richards would stay with Waller's mother, Joyce Schottel, at her home in Knoxville, about three hours away by car. He was set to attend Nashville Auto-Diesel College for training in auto body painting and repair. The summer after Tina Richards graduated from high school, in July 2006, she moved to Tennessee with Waller. "They were together as much as they could be, as most couples are," he said. When Richards and Waller began dating in 2005, their relationship was like any other teenage romance, Steven Richards said. She did, however, go on to earn her high school diploma the next year. ![]() ![]() Richards, her father said, "stumbled her senior year and missed a credit," so she never graduated with the rest of her friends. "He said he wanted to make a living," said his mother, Joyce Schottel. Waller attended Effingham County schools until he dropped out after his junior year in high school - more than a year before he and Richards began dating seriously. He moved here with his mother and father around 1993 from the Tampa, Fla., area when Waller was about 7 years old. Waller, a year older than Richards, had lived in the area about 10 years. She met Phillip Wesley Waller at Effingham Middle School.Īccording to Waller's MySpace page, he and Richards began dating seriously in September 2005, just after Richards began her senior year at Effingham High. "She was daddy's little girl," said her father, Steven Richards. She was involved in extracurricular activities such as Future Farmers of America. Interviews with relatives and friends indicate she had a good, normal life. She attended Rincon Elementary School, Effingham County Middle School and then Effingham County High School. Tina Marie Richards grew up in Effingham County. Those circumstances include the pressure felt by a young couple who became parents before they had a chance to grow up themselves. Because it involves a child, officials will not provide any information about their findings.īut through extensive interviews and research, the Savannah Morning News has uncovered details of the case and the circumstances leading up to Aiden's abuse. Officials at the local and state levels continue to investigate Aiden's case. Were DFACS officials checking on Aiden as often as they should have been?ĭid Aiden's father or any of the couple's other roommates, friends and family members know about the abuse? If so, why didn't they report it? Was there any judicial oversight on the decision to return custody of Aiden to his mother, or was it made solely by the staff of the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services? Who made the decision to return the baby? What kind of parental counseling was she undergoing? How could a 19-year-old mother with a record of depression and abuse have custody of her child returned to her after only a few months of counseling?
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