A Friend To Everyone

Takoda Hayden Collins was born to Al-Muhatan McLean and Robin Collins on December 18, 2008, in Dane County, Wisconsin. Though born into a world of infinite possibilities, little Takoda never stood a chance in his life. Both Al and Robin were drug addicts, and that was the focus of the new parents. Robin routinely left Takoda with a family friend, beginning the day Takoda came home from the hospital. Neither could find the time to concern themselves with taking care of the child that the pair brought into the world. Drugs were the cause of the day and Takoda became an afterthought, that is when he wasn't in the way of his parents' good time.

Documentation of Takoda's abuse began before his first birthday when his mother, Robin Collins, was arrested and charged with child abuse, child neglect, and battery on little Takoda. With the charges levied against her on Takoda's behalf, Robin also earned herself a host of other charges that included cocaine possession. Later in court, Robin openly admitted to striking her eleven-month-old baby in November of 2009 and was placed on a measly one year of probation. Not only was Robin in trouble with the law, but she was also in trouble with family court and she lost custody of Takoda. Unfortunately, he was officially placed into state custody. Though Takoda was a ward of the state, he was placed in the care of a friend of Robin's, Anita Bredeson. Anita and her fiance had taken little Takoda into their home just days after Takoda was born, and it was only natural that he return to them when Robin found herself in trouble. By the time Takoda found his way back into Bredeson's home, he had been in three additional foster homes. In December of 2011, Robin was sent to prison for a probation violation for what she says was due to drugs, and documents back her claim.

April of 2012 found Al in trouble with the police after he hit and choked a man that Al was convinced had his cell phone. The man didn't have Al's cell phone, but that didn't stop Al from beating the man insensately. After pleading out to disorderly conduct, Al-Muhatan was free to attempt to gain custody of Takoda, and even with his violent history and drug use, it was easy for him. Upon being granted custody, McLean immediately petitioned the court to be able to leave the state of Wisconsin with Takoda and was met with a countersuit from Robin. On the 21st day of October 2013, Robin Collins filed a petition to keep McLean from leaving the state, claiming that Al's treatment of Takoda was under active investigation by Wisconsin child welfare officials. Though Robin was correct in her assertions, just two days later a judge would grant full custody to Takoda's father, Al-Muhatan McLean. Everyone that could have helped Takoda turned a blind eye to Al's history of violence and several cases with CPS. That is when Takoda's life became a nightmare of unimaginable proportions.

Only three days after Al was granted full and sole custody of Takoda, Al was accused of hitting his girlfriend, Amanda Heinze, in the head with a pipe, dragging her by her hair to her car, forcing her inside of the vehicle, punching her, and leaving with her. Prosecutors would later drop the charges against McLean, thus boosting his confidence that his abuse would continue without intercession. She, of course, rejoined Al and brought her sister, Jennifer, with her.

Life went along for little Takoda, getting as much love and attention as possible in whatever way he could manage to get his dad's attention. Al would leave the state with Takoda and further confuse the child welfare system. First, he moved with Takoda to Tennessee. Then he returned to Wisconsin and filed yet another intent to leave the state. Though he stated he was going to move to Pennsylvania, he moved with Amanda, Jennifer Ebert (Amanda's sister), and Takoda to Ohio. With a child welfare service that is full to overflowing with child abuse allegations, little Takoda got lost in the shuffle.

Takoda was lost in the system, but a spotlight would be directed on him when he entered school in 2014. Teachers described Takoda as a very sweet little boy that came from a bad situation. Takoda was often dirty and in clothes that smelled of urine and feces. His teachers would regularly wash Takoda's clothes and clean him up when he arrived at school every morning. That is, until Takoda's father, instructed the school that they weren't permitted to do that any longer. Though I used the word "instructed", Al showed up at the school red-faced and screaming at the staff about them having extended a kindness to his child in the manner of clean clothes and a clean body. Though an incredible seventeen reports were made from Horace Mann Elementary school to the Department of Family and Children Services, Takoda would continue to be stuck in his own private hell, made even worse when Al pulled Takoda from public school, claiming he would be homeschooled. Nobody ever questioned why Takoda was leaving. Nobody questioned who would be teaching Takoda. They simply allowed the child to walk away with his father. Just like that, Al was free to abuse his son with nobody to take note of the marks, bruises, cuts, and bumps. With nobody left to hear Takoda's cries for help, just how severe his abuse was wouldn't be known until it was too late.

Amanda Hinze and Jennifer Ebert sat and quietly watched as Al-Muhatan Mclean destroyed his little boy. Without a second thought to the well-being of Takoda, the women watched on a television screen in the living room what was going on in the little boy's bedroom through the security camera Al had installed in the room. To call it a room is not really shedding light on the conditions Takoda was forced to live in. The entirety of the attic of the home was dedicated to Takoda at one point. That is until a desperate Takoda jumped from a small window in the attic, requiring an emergency visit to Dayton Children's Hospital. Though the hospital staff listened as Takoda informed them that he jumped from the window because he was too scared to stay home, they discharged the little boy to his father. No report was made to the Department of Family and Children Services. Again, little Takoda's scream for help went unanswered by all of the people in his life that could have helped him. The hospital staff witnessed the bruising and abrasions on his little body, turning a blind eye and sending Takoda right back into the hell from which the nine-year-old was so desperate to escape that he threw himself through an attic window. After the hospital visit, Al walled off most of the attic, leaving Takoda in a small, windowless, dark area of the space. Long gone were the days of Takoda sleeping on an actual bed with a real mattress. His father had decided he wasn't worthy of comfort and opted instead for a tarp on the floor underneath a cheap lawn chair.

Takoda Hayden Collins' Last Days

The attic space allotted to Takoda was up a dark staircase, painted white but just like the rest of the home the staircase was filthy and stained with dirt, feces, and blood. The walls were a sickening pink and the door at the top of the steps was blue and held a clasp that was then secured with a padlock. The floor of Takoda's "bedroom" was disgusting with a thick layer of dirt and feces ground into the wood. There were no windows. There was no light in the room. A filthy tarp and a green chaise lawn chair were offered to Takoda as a makeshift bed. Takoda wasn't permitted blankets or sheets. He was denied clothing for the last two years of his life, all according to Al, because Takoda would frequently urinate and defecate all over everything he owned, thus destroying the items given to him. Al would deny that he ever did more than try to keep his son from hurting himself but then admitted that he probably "only" put about fifty percent of the bruises on his son.

Takoda was starved for days at a time and then forced by Al to consume his own feces. Takoda had been punished that way so many times that he began to eat his feces before his father could force him to do it. He was consistently locked in the attic room for hours at a time, often causing Takoda to wet his pants, for which he would be severely punished. Any infraction committed by Takoda, real or imagined, was met with extreme punishment. Often Takoda would be forced to stand for hours on end, holding his bookbag or other heavy items. On the day of Takoda's death, Al grabbed Takoda by the ears, dragging the helpless child down the steps when he didn't move fast enough for his liking. Once inside the bathroom, Al ordered Takoda to clean the shorts that he had wet in while forced into a punishment position for hours. It is worthy to note that before the punishment position was demanded of Takoda, Al went so far as to pour hot sauce directly onto the anus of his young son, explaining that Takoda was always sticking something into his behind. He further explained to detectives that when he was young and wouldn't keep his fingers out of his mouth, his father used hot sauce to get his point across to a young Al. When Takoda, weak from the abuse he suffered and lack of nutrition, once again didn't move as fast as Al would have liked him to, he threatened to drown little Takoda if he didn't pick up the pace. Moments later, Amanda Hinze and Jennifer Ebert would hear splashing and a choking sound from the bathroom, though neither of the women would move from their seats to stop Al and save the life of Takoda.

McLean then forced his son back upstairs and placed little Takoda back into his attic room. Once satisfied that Takoda's punishment was sufficient, and he was on his makeshift bed, Al went downstairs to relax on the couch with Amanda and Jennifer. When Takoda moved from his position moments later, Al was furious. He ran up the stairs and into Takoda's room, grabbing the leg off of a stool in the attic space assigned to the ten-year-old. While the women watched from downstairs, Al shoved the leg from the stool into the anus of his son. He spent several minutes ramming the wooden leg into his son before he kicked him and then stood on his young son's back with his full weight.

Takoda was forced to wear an electric shock collar, originally meant for the pitbull dogs Al owned. Young Takoda was forced into cold water in the bathtub, denied clothing, food, and a bathroom, He was forced to stand for hours on end in stress positions, he was tased repeatedly, raped with a wooden stool leg, thrown down the steps, punched, kicked, tortured, and drowned.

On the thirteenth day of December, Takoda's body could take no more abuse. The ten-year-old yelled for his father, knowing he was dying, and pleading for help. Takoda has an extremely distended abdomen, the result of his father having attacked him internally with a wooden stool leg and then standing on him, busting his little organs open and causing Takoda to bleed into his abdominal cavity. While Al watched, Takoda tried to push himself up off of the floor but his arms were no longer strong enough to lift his weight and he fell back to the floor. Al grabbed Takoda underneath his arms, lifting him and helping him down the stairs. Takoda Hayden Collins was naked, freezing cold, swollen, battered, and bruised. His stomach was distended to unbelievable proportions, likened to that of a full-term pregnant woman. Still unsure of his son's condition, Al contemplated calling emergency services, saying that he wanted to be sure his son wasn't going to waste the time of responding officials. Once again, Al claimed his best course of action was to put Takoda back into the bathtub, further explaining he was trying to get the smell off of his son for the benefit of the first responders. Al removed his almost lifeless son from the bathtub and laid him on the floor behind the couch in the living room. It was then that Al decided that Takoda wasn't faking it and called 911. While he was on the phone with emergency services, he took the time to dress Takoda. That was only the second time in two years Takoda had been permitted to wear clothes, the other time being his trip to the hospital after jumping out of the attic window. Al told detectives that he attempted to give Takoda CPR, but the smell coming from his mouth was horrid, probably, he said, because of Takoda's passion for eating his own feces. The 911 call did indicate that Al tried CPR, and the sound of Al gagging over his son can be heard. After a few short moments, Takoda was released from his private hell and wrapped into the arms of death.

Building A Case

Over the following days, law enforcement would work endlessly to build a case against Al-Muhatan McLean, Amanda Hinze and Jennifer Ebert. Al's interrogation is sickening to watch and even worse to hear. Al begins with a complaint that one of the officers hit him in the mouth and told him he killed his son. After attempting to complain about the officer hitting him and getting no sympathy, he agreed to speak to the detective, proclaiming that his only interest at that point was finding out what happened to his son. When asked what happened earlier that day with Takoda, Al began his answer by telling the detective that he hadn't slept in three days. He explained that "the kid" kept falling down the steps, knocking his head around and that the night before Takoda seemed to have something wrong with his stomach. Mclean explained that he forced his son to drink several glasses of water in an attempt to make Takoda throw up because it was commonplace for the ten-year-old to consume his own feces. Al claimed that after he gave his son the water Takoda went back upstairs and began acting up again by throwing himself from his bed and flinging himself down the stairs. Complaining again that he hadn't slept in three days, Al continued his story by saying he eventually went upstairs to check on Takoda and "the boy" was lying on his bed with a wooden leg from a stool in his anus with a small pool of blood beneath him. Al-Muhatan McLean calmly explained to a horrified detective that he asked Takoda to remove the wooden leg and get to the shower so that Al could be sure that Takoda hadn't done too much damage to himself. Al felt that putting Takoda in a bath would be the best bet since the young boy's body was covered in bruises and swollen in many places and it was his hope that some of the swelling would be abated. Al's story was that after Takoda's bath he sent the child back upstairs to his attic room and went to relax on the couch. Takoda put an end to Al's relaxation when he yelled for help, sending McLean back up the stairs to the attic space that had been allocated as Takoda's. When Al got upstairs, Takoda was in really bad shape and his body temperature had started to drop, leaving his skin cold to the touch. Al decided the best way to help his son would be to rinse him off with water to see if he would "shake out of it". Al asserted that he had absolutely no way of knowing that his son was that sick, that it was his thought that Takoda was just doing the normal acting out and he "didn't think it had gone that far". Though his son was cold to the touch and shaking uncontrollably, Al said that he continued to believe that Takoda was still simply acting out.

Over and over again during the interrogation with McLean, he said there was nothing he could do about anything Takoda was going through. Absolutely nothing. Al says he attempted to get Takoda mental help many times and was turned away because of Takoda's age, a statement that turned out to be sadly true. Al-Muhatan attempted to force tears and then explained that he was just in shock and couldn't cry because he hadn't slept in three days as he continued to tell his version of events.

Unbelievably, Al-Muhatan McLean was given legal care and custody over his brother who was only three when Takoda was murdered. Takoda was sent to live in the attic, according to Al, when Takoda became aggressive with his much younger uncle. Al stressed to the detective at that point just how much his son had an odor about him and said that when Takoda moved up to the attic that it was clean and didn't stink as the downstairs did. Several times throughout the interrogation, Al would repeat the same things. Takoda was violent with himself. Takoda ate his own feces and drank his own urine when he wasn't using the aforementioned to smear over himself, walls, furniture, sheets, blankets, pillows, and clothing. Al boasted that he wouldn't beat Takoda in response to his acting out, though he might grab him or spank him to keep him from hurting himself. He revealed to detectives that though Takoda was fed four to five times per day, he would take twenty hours to eat a single bowl of noodles. He expounded on Takoda's habit of urination and defecation all over the house and himself as something that he stayed on top of by constantly cleaning Takoda's messes. The bucket that was found in the attic space that belonged to Takoda was there for him to clean his own messes because there was absolutely not one more thing he could do as a father to improve his son's situation.

When speaking about the video camera in Takoda's room, Al explained that it was only there to monitor his son's crazy and out-of-control behavior so that he could do his fatherly duty and keep his son safe. McLean had no explanation, however, for the video camera being disconnected by the time authorities arrived at his house. When detectives asked if he had any video displaying the behavior of his son, McLean quickly responded that he didn't keep any of that footage as it would be entirely too embarrassing.

Though Takoda was registered as a homeschooled student and Al claimed that he was teaching Takoda, he said that buying books for his son was futile as his animalistic child would just urinate and defecate all over them. It had been two years prior to Takoda's death that he was offered any type of education. No chance for even an escape with the written word. No hope for loving touch, affection, or positive interaction with any other human being.

He gave the detectives details of each of his son's obvious injuries, always placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of little Takoda. The fall down the steps? According to Al, Takoda did it to himself. The wooden stool leg? Al proclaimed that little Takoda did that to himself and that when he entered the room to take the wooden stool leg away from Takoda, the ten-year-old little boy fought his father to be able to keep the leg in his behind. Al would spend hours telling the detectives that little Takoda was a problem child, that all of his injuries were Takoda's own fault, and that he did everything he could as a parent to help his son with his obvious mental problems.

Al-Muhatan McLean complained during calls from jail that he tried to get his son help, but the child was so full of bruises all of the time that Al was unable to take him to an appointment with any medical professional. When pressed further, Al admitted he was worried about them seeing signs of the abuse that was being heaped on Takoda and was trying to wait for his son to heal enough to get him help.

There were four more people that shared the house with Takoda and Al-Muhatan McLean. Amanda Hinze was the girlfriend of Al, and she had a child from a previous relationship. Al had custody of his younger brother, and the sister of Amanda, Jennifer Ebert lived in the home as well. Both of the children were removed from the home immediately and both women were arrested as well. Neither of the girls would stay in jail very long, as both posted bond. It was during the time that Al remained in jail with a $1,000,000 bond that several phone calls between Al and Amanda took place. The recordings are astonishing. Al can be heard asking Amanda for pictures of his babies. He can be heard proclaiming undying love for his babies. His babies? Pitbulls. He was worried about the dogs. There was very little mention of Takoda, other than to complain about how much he smelled.

It was also during this time that investigators made contact by way of telephone with ex-coworkers of Al and teachers at Takoda's school. The commonalities in the description of Al's appearance and hygiene habits were made clear in the notes that the investigators took. They all agreed that Al was lazy, unmotivated, and reeked of body odor. It was becoming more apparent that Takoda was a product of his father in every way.

It wasn't long before both Amanda and Jennifer were back in jail and before a judge to answer for their charges against Takoda Hayden Collins. Amanda was charged with and found guilty of three counts of endangering a child and one count of manslaughter. Jennifer was charged with and found guilty of the same. Amanda was handed twenty-two to twenty-seven and a half years in prison for her role in Takoda's death and Jennifer an astounding eight years. Both women will be required to register as a sex offender upon their release.

Al-Muhatan McLean was charged with murder, rape, and child endangering and found guilty of the same. Judge J Dennis Adkins told McLean that what he did was pure evil, and further added that he showed no mercy to his son, and the court would show no mercy to him. He was sentenced to fifty-one years to life in prison. He, too, will be required to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life, should he ever be released.

Takoda Hayden Collins was a friend to everyone but had not a single friend. Nobody looked out for Takoda, and even the people that took an oath to protect him let him down. How far did they let him down? All six feet.

Following the sentencing of the three responsible, the Estate of Takoda Collins sued Montgomery County, claiming a failure of the Montgomery County Children Services to protect Takoda. A settlement was reached totaling $3.2 million. Though the largest part of the settlement will go to Takoda's three siblings, his mother and grandmother also received a portion.