Left: Jason Klimp. Right: Jessica Klimp (Fentress County Jail).
A mother and father in Michigan have received additional prison sentences for starving their adopted daughters and confining them to dog cages.
Jessica Klimp, 45, and Jason Klimp, 47, were sentenced to eight years and three months behind bars after they pleaded no contest to two counts of first-degree child abuse, the Michigan Attorney General”s Office said. The couple is already serving a decade-long prison sentence in Tennessee for abusing the girls while staying at a rental house in that state.
The Klimps, both of whom have since had their parental rights terminated, starved their daughters and kept them locked up in dog cages and a “man-made straitjacket,” among other things.
They were extradited from Tennessee last year to face these additional charges after state investigators uncovered evidence of systemic torture involving two of their four adopted children.
The Michigan investigation began in earnest after the couple was arrested during a stay in Tennessee in February 2024. Following that arrest, the Michigan State Police executed a search warrant at the Klimps’ Wexford County home.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, authorities discovered a “man-made straitjacket” in a bedroom, along with security alarms installed on the bedroom door. Perhaps most disturbingly, investigators said they also found “dog cages that appeared to have been used to confine the children” inside the home.
“Kids deserve to grow up in a loving home free from abuse,” Michigan Attorney General Nessel said in a statement following the plea. “The cruelty that these children endured is heartbreaking, and while no outcome can erase the trauma, I hope these convictions will provide a sense of justice and healing.”
The investigation into the adoptive parents began when authorities in Fentress County, Tennessee, responded to the family’s home after one of their adopted daughters collapsed. Jason Klimp reportedly placed the child in a cold shower in an attempt to wake her up before paramedics arrived.
The 12-year-old girl had suffered so much neglect and abuse that first responders initially believed she was between 6 and 8 years old. A paramedic testified at a previous hearing that the girl’s body temperature was a dangerously low 95.6 degrees and her skin was discolored.
The girl and her sister were severely underweight due to a diet of only “liquefied food” from a bottle. She later told police they were forced to eat that way because they “ate too much and would get sick.”
Investigators also learned that the couple would severely punish the kids for things like wetting the bed, forcing them to sleep on plastic totes in a 60-degree basement without blankets. A total of eight children were living in the home at the time — four biological and four adopted.
In October, a Tennessee judge sentenced the couple to 10 years behind bars for aggravated child abuse. They were subsequently returned to Michigan to face the Wexford County charges.
Jerry Lambe contributed to this report
