Father convicted in Wisconsin neglect case of teen found weighing 35 pounds

OUTAGAMIE COUNTY, Wis. (TCN) — The fourth and final defendant has been convicted in the case of a teen found starved and weighing just 35 pounds last year.

In August 2025, police received a report of an unresponsive 14-year-old girl and responded to the mobile home where she lived with her father, Walter Goodman; her stepmother, Melissa Goodman; Melissa Goodman’s daughter, Savanna LeFever; and LeFever’s partner, Kayla Stemler. 

First responders thought the girl was between 6 and 8 years old based on her size. She was taken to an area hospital and treated for malnutrition, pancreatitis, acute hepatitis, respiratory failure, optic nerve neuropathy, pressure sores, and cardiac dysfunction. An investigation found she had not been to school or received medical care in years.

Each of the adults in the home was chargedwith several counts of chronic neglect.

According to a criminal complaint obtained by WLUK, Walter Goodman claimed his daughter did not like to eat or sleep. He asserted he would offer food and she would turn it down, but when she was in the hospital, a nurse noted the victim’s “eyes lit up as she started listing off all the options of food she could have over the course of her hospitalization” and explained her father would be mad if she ate too much.

Melissa Goodman pleaded no contest to the charges and was sentenced July 1 to 15 years in prison followed by 10 years of extended supervision. Stemler was sentenced to eight years in prison followed by 36 months of extended supervision on August 24. LeFever pleaded no contest to the charges on August 28 and she is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 3.

WLUK reports Walter Goodman was convicted on Nov. 3 after pleading no contest to chronic neglect of a child, consequence is great bodily harm; chronic neglect of a child, consequence is emotional damage; and false imprisonment.

According to WLUK, Walter Goodman is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 2, 2027. The Post-Crescent reports he faces up to 28 years in prison.

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