Personal life Ame Lynn Deal was born in
Monongahela, Pennsylvania, on July 24, 2000, to Shirley Deal, who was married to David Deal at the time she conceived. According to Shirley, she was
seeing another man during the time she conceived, therefore it is not known for sure if David Deal is the father of Ame. However, David Deal is listed as Ame's father on her
birth certificate. Shirley and David had two other children together before Ame was born. Shirley and David were living together until Shirley and her children went to stay with her mother in
Donora, Pennsylvania. Eventually Shirley and the children joined David again and they lived in
Midland, Texas, together with David's mother, Judith Deal, and his sister, Cynthia Stoltzmann. Shirley claims that while David's family made her a slave to them, called her names and hit her, they did not abuse the children. Shirley claims also that the family threw her out and she left without her children, relocating to
Iola, Kansas.
Abuse Neighbors claimed that Ame was often abused and reported seeing her forced to walk back and forth on the sidewalk, barefoot, in extremely hot Phoenix temperatures. In one instance, Ame had been made to walk barefoot on the burning hot pavement in 114-degree weather for fifteen minutes. At other times she was beaten with a paddle which they called the "Butt Buster", forced to eat hot sauce and dog feces, and crush aluminum cans while barefoot. Ame was also forced to sleep on the floor of the shower without bedding as punishment for bed-wetting. Before the family moved to
Phoenix, Arizona, they were living in
Ogden, Utah, where school officials claimed that they had reported many incidences of
abuse and
neglect about the family's children to the authorities. School officials claimed that Ame and her siblings came to school filthy. They said Ame often had
head lice and once had
cat urine on her shoes. The school officials noted that Ame seemed to be the scapegoat of the family. While living in Phoenix, Ame and the other children were supposedly being
home-schooled. David Deal, Ame's possible father, was reported living in the back of the family rental home in a tent with his two other children. When asked why Ame was treated so badly, it was said, "She was mentally a little slow, but that's it."
Death On July 12, 2011, police officers were called to Ame Deal's home, where she was found dead in her own urine and sweat within a small plastic
footlocker that was placed in a hot garage. She
suffocated to death, with heat exhaustion and dehydration being contributors. Ame had been living with her grandmother, Judith Deal, and Cynthia Stoltzmann, 44, the aunt and legal guardian of Ame. Also living there were Cynthia Stoltzmann's daughter, Sammantha, and her son-in-law, John Allen, both 23, and twelve or more children. The family first told the police officers that Ame was playing hide-n-seek and locked herself in the footlocker the night before, after the adults went to sleep. They all claimed that they found Ame dead the next day in the container. Police suspected foul play since Ame was found very dirty with bruises on her left leg, since it was in forced contact with the trunk. After being interrogated for a while, Sammantha and John Allen confessed to locking Ame in the trunk, as a form of punishment, because she took a popsicle without permission. Ame was said to be "chronically hungry". David and his family members all claimed that Ame is not his daughter. Police claimed the family abused Ame because they did not believe she was a blood relative. ==Arrests==