Welcome everyone! Welcome to a new episode of Love and Murder – the weekly true crime podcast discussing relationships gone terribly wrong, where our motto is you’re either someone’s last love or first murder.
I am your host Ky and we don’t have a co-host today but we will be back to normal very soon.
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In today’s episode, I’m telling you about a despicable set of parents and a poor child. It’s the case of Kimberly Maurer and Scott Fremont Schollenberger Jr.
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On May 26, 2020 Annville Township Police and Lebanon County Detective Bureau found a body in a room on the second floor of a house.
“Both the bed and the victim’s body were wholly covered in fecal matter. The door and its frame contained three metal hooks … to lock the child in his bedroom.”
That’s right – a child.
In Annville Township, PA, a 12 year old boy was hidden from everyone outside of the home for years. On May 26 at around 12:05pm, when initial police were called out to the home on a report of a deceased child. When they arrived they found Scott Fremont Schollenberger Jr, 42 and Kimberly Marie Maurer, 35 along with other children in the home. The 12 year old, Max Schollenberger, was Scott’s son with another woman and the other children were full siblings to Max and some belonged to the couple.
The 12 year old appears to have been forced to live in this room with no contact with anyone – from the outside or from the inside – and police described house to be under “horrific conditions.” This is when they called the county detectives.
The body was found, naked, on a bed that was covered in feceses. The room only had a bed, no furniture, no toys, nothing. There was a cup with literally an inch of water, but no other food. There were clothes strewn about on the floor and they, too, were covered in feces.
In news released from the Lebanon County District Attorney’s office, “Claw marks appeared in the child victim’s sheets. Max Schollenberger’s bedroom was entirely devoid of light and furniture, aside from the bed wherein he died. The bedroom’s windows contained shades and doors. The shades were taped to the window frames and the doors were screwed shut; the window coverings rendered the child unable to see in or out.The door and its frame contained three metal hooks … to lock the child in his bedroom.”
The other children; however, were fully fed, in school, and with no apparent abuse whatsoever.
When police spoke with the other children, one child said that they always remembered that whenever Scott and Kimberly went into Max’ room he would scream and cry. All of the children reported that they were not allowed to let Max out of his room.
During the investigation, it was also revealed that Max had never been taken to the doctor or never been enrolled in the last 10 years. Well never been enrolled in school because he was only 12. The weird thing is that Scott had been with Kimberly for 10 years. Do you see the correlation here?
“The investigation also revealed that defendant Schollenberger expressed intense frustration towards the child victim and that he had indicated to other individuals that he was afraid of hurting him.”
On June 1, a forensic autopsy was performed by Doctor Michael W. Johnson, MD, PhD at the Lehigh Valley Hospital. Due to the autopsy, it was revealed that Max had been starved. There were signs of malnutrition as well as evidence of blunt force trauma in multiple areas throughout his head and body, including a broken eye socket. It was also revealed that he died from blunt force trauma to the head.
Also, at the time of death, at 12 years old, he only weighed 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) and was 50 inches (127cm) tall; his BMI (Body Mass Index) was less than the 1 percentile for his age group.
His limbs showed a SEVERE lack of muscle mass and his bones were in a weakened, brittle state.
“In my medical opinion, this 12-year-old child died as the result of blunt force head trauma complicating starvation/malnutrition. In the context of the Lebanon County investigation, it is my medical opinion that this child’s death was a homicide.”
Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Edward McCann, said that this was the worst of child abuse case he’d ever been involved with in 32 years.
In September 2020 Police filed criminal homicide charges, conspiracy to commit criminal homicide, criminal conspiracy to endanger the welfare of children, and endangering the welfare of children charges against Scott and his fiancee, Kimberly.
After this happened, District Attorney Pier Hess Graf said, “Today marks the first step in the long path of justice for this little boy. Max Schollenberger existed – I will not call this living – in a state of perpetual suffering; he existed in the most egregious and foul of conditions. This child never looked forward to his first day of school, blew out candles on a birthday cake, or experienced the unconditional love of family. Max Schollenberger died in soiled sheets, covered in his own feces.”
Now interesting note: Both Scott and Kimberly said that Max never suffered from any form of mental or physical disorders.
While awaiting their trial, Scott and Kimberly stayed in the Lebanon County Prison without bail. The preliminary hearing was scheduled for Sept. 24 2021.
The trial was set for March 14, 2022, almost two years after he was charged; however, Scott actually plead guilty while in a pre-trial conference hearing.
He was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.
Kimberly, on the other hand, plead not guilty. Her trial was still scheduled for March 14, 2022.
Now check this out:
Trial started and was over seen by Judge Charles and her lawyer was Andrew Race.
Her lawyers started their arguments saying that Scott was the orchestrator of the abuse and murder. Attorney Race argued that she should be convicted of endangering the welfare of a child, but nothing more serious because Scott wouldn’t allow anyone else to make the decisions for his son or to get him help.
“The only thing Kim is guilty of is letting Scott control her, not doing more and not calling the police.”
During the trial, several witnesses described Scott as “mean and off-putting” and also said that Max was scared of his father.
Kimberly’s daughter, Erika (17), testified that she once saw Scott pick Max up by his shoulders and scream in his face.
Max’s mother said that after he was 3 years old she never saw him again. She would follow his life through social media pictures but then even that stopped.
The prosecution focused on Kimberly’s Facebook posts, text messages, and videos recovered from her cell phone. Investigators had recovered more than 32,000 text messages, 102,000 pages of Facebook messages, and 7000 pictures and videos. Because it’s like we say here at Love and Murder – if you’re gonna commit a crime, make sure you have as much evidence, in your voice and handwriting, as possible.
Some of these messages showed Kimberly talking about Scott’s inability to control Max’s behavior. She also talked about times where Max would poop and pee in the home.
“You should see Max’s dinner plate, maybe I should start taking pictures to prove I feed the asshole,” one text read.
They also read messages send from Scott to Kimberly. “If I have to come home, I will beat his ass.”
They was also testified that after Kimberly found the body, she packed up her little family and left the house and went to a neighbor’s house to call 911. She also said Scott took a gun and went to Berks County.
On the 911 call, played for the jury, you can hear the officers saying, “(Maurer’s) tracking him (Scott Schollenberger) on his phone. His phone is turned off. There’s a location in Blue Marsh (National Recreation Area), and she said his gun is missing.”
Prosecutors also brought forth video evidence to the jury of a interview between investigators and Kimberly on May 28, 2020. On the tape, she described Scott as lazy and did not do anything for Max. She also said that she didn’t call the Lebanon County Children and Youth Agency about Max’s condition because Scott made it clear that he wouldnt’ allow it.
“I would feed the child or he would never eat, because Scott wouldn’t go up to his room and do anything,” Maurer said on the tape.
Dr. Lori Fraiser told the jury that as the 12-year-old’s health was deteriorating, his parents would have been able to see warning signs.
“He’d look incredibly thin, (and) had no fat on his bones. He wasn’t moving, wasn’t able to stand, wasn’t able to do any bodily functions…no doubt in the last few weeks of Max’s life that he was very, very impaired.”
It took the jury less than one hour to convict her GUILTY on multiple counts of criminal homicide, involuntary manslaughter, criminal conspiracy to endanger the welfare of children, and endangering the welfare of a child.
Afterwards, Kimberly’s sentencing hearing was scheduled for June 1.
She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. She also received an additional 5 to 10 years on top of that sentence.
“Kimberly Maurer stole Maxwell’s life. The jury saw the worst of humanity during this trial, and we are forever in their debt for the strength they showed in their verdict. I want to thank the jury for its service and its verdict… While the verdict cannot every bring Maxwell back, or give him the future he desperately deserved, it finally imposed the ultimate consequence on the Defendant.”
And that is the case of Scott Schollenberger and Kimberly Maurer. They are both in prison for the rest of their lives and an innocent 12 year old was brutally murdered by them. Other children were left without a mother and father and possibly scarred for life.
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Now for a Love and Murder update:
With a new co-host, Rick, you can see that we are making some changes to the podcast. Everything we are doing is to bring you a better show! As you can see, for now I’m doing the shows by myself and they’ve been shorter. Right now, we’ve been focusing on preparing some new and exciting content for all of you. Rick and I have been working round the clock on the back end making enough episodes so that we will never miss a release again, all of you never miss out on new content, and we’ll be back on a stable schedule.
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