Florida Children’s Author, Husband Plead Guilty to Abusing and Neglecting Their 3 Kids

USA Today
By Jeanine Santucci
1/18/25

Florida Children’s Author, Husband Plead Guilty to Abusing and Neglecting Their 3 Kids

A Florida children’s author and her husband pleaded guilty to abusing and neglecting their three children, leaving one girl hospitalized in critical condition with multiple organ failure.

She was 8 years old, according to local news reports. She weighed just 40 pounds, arrest records show. The children were beaten with a device called a “whacker,” locked up, and not allowed to speak to each other.

Jennifer Wolfthal, 45, who wrote a children’s book called “A Real Friend,” and her