"I Sold My 2 Year Old For $500 Worth of Cocaine"

Tina Vanderhorst was in prison on a drug conviction when she delivered her seventh child, Ke’Shaun Vanderhorst, in July 1993. The state placed Ke’Shaun in foster care until Tina’s prison release in November 1994. Despite warnings against reuniting Tina and Ke’Shaun, a judge decided she deserved a second chance to be a mom and granted her custody of the 16-month-old toddler.

Four of Tina’s other children had tragically died in their sleep from SIDS, Terrance Slaughter died at eight months old, Catrina Stephens at three months old, and Kenneth Stephens at 10 months old. The fourth child, Marie, never left the hospital. Born addicted to crack cocaine in 1988, she weighed only 1.1 pounds at birth and never left the hospital. Marie died four weeks later.

Tina Was a Great Mother

Tina wanted to raise Ka’Shaun and vowed she had changed. After her release from prison, she found an apartment in North Philadelphia and reacclimated herself with life on the outside.

Tina no longer used drugs and quickly made friends in her neighborhood. Neighbors helped babysit Ka'Shaun for Tina since she could not afford childcare. Neighbors and family spoke highly of Tina as a person and a mother. Wherever you saw Tina, you saw Ke’Shaun beside her, laughing and smiling. She wanted to give Ke’Shaun a great life.

She attended parenting classes offered by the Philadelphia Support Center for Child Advocates, the agency representing Ka’Shaun’s best interests in court, and enrolled in culinary school, entitling her to free daycare services provided by the state. Ka’Shaun thrived at daycare. Workers said he was happy, well-behaved, and clean.

The Department of Human Services filed a petition to release Ka’Shaun from their caseload. Ken, the worker from the Support Center, objected based on Tina’s prior drug use and concerns over the deaths of her other four children. The judge sided with DHS and closed Tina and Ke’Shaun’s case with them on August 10, 1995. Ke’Shaun disappeared less than 45 days later.

A Turn For The Worst

Things turned dark in the Vanderhorst home after the man Tina had been dating broke off their relationship. By the end of September, she stopped attending culinary classes, leading the state to discontinue daycare services for Ka’Shaun.

Neighbors watched Ka’Shaun stand on the windowsill of his apartment screaming and crying one day in September.  About 30 minutes later, Tina walked down the sidewalk and into the apartment. She had left Ke’Shaun alone at the apartment te and didn't offer an explanation to concerned neighbors upon her return.

Neighbors noticed Tina behaving strangely on multiple occasions and said she appeared to be intoxicated or high on drugs.

On September 24, 1995, Tina’s sister Kim visited her and Ke’Shaun at her apartment. This was the last time anyone saw the toddler. When she visited again during the first week of October, Ke’Shaun wasn’t around. Tina claimed he was visiting with his father. Kim was suspicious; she noticed her sister was intoxicated.

Neighbors noticed Tina around the apartment without Ke’Shaun. On Oct. 11, her older children visited. When the boys asked about their brother, Tina sobbed and replied, “You’re not going to see Ke’Shaun anymore.” She refused to give them more information.

The boys told their grandmother. She confronted Tina about the missing toddler. Tina told her that a DHS worker took Ke’Shaun. 

Tina Arrested, Changed Story Several Times

Tina disappeared after this confrontation. Kim reported her and Ke’Shaun missing on October 13, 1995. Police found her three days later in an area known for drug users. She appeared to be high and had drugs in her possession. When asked about Ke’Shaun, Tina told police officers that DHS workers had taken him. She was taken into custody.

Police searched Tina’s apartment, noting its condition as “rat-infested and filthy and cluttered.” They did not find any evidence pointing them to Ke’Shaun’s whereabouts. 

The following day, DHS workers confirmed Ke’Shaun was not in their care.

A week into her jail stay, Tina changed her story. “I sold Ke’Shaun for $500 worth of crack,” she told the investigator. Tina said a strange woman knocked on her door asking to buy the child. Identifying herself as Virginia Graham, a mother of two, the woman told Tina she could visit with Ke’Shaun anytime she wanted, handed her $500 in $20 bills, and walked off with the toddler.

On October 23, Tina changed her story again, this time claiming she smoked crack in her apartment with an unnamed man. Afterward, she and Ke’Shaun took a walk to a fruit stand on Cecil B. Moore Avenue. She could not remember where she left her son.

Tina took a lie detector test; the results came back inconclusive.

Tina Sentenced to Prison, Released, Charged With Separate Murder

On October 27, 1995, police charged Tina with endangering the welfare of a child and corrupting the morals of a minor. She pleaded no contest to the charges on November 18, 1996. In court, Tina admitted that she sold Ke’Shaun to a strange woman for money to buy cocaine.

At her sentencing hearing in January 1997, Tina again changed her story. She now claimed police forced her to say she sold Ke’Shaun. She said she was smoking crack cocaine in her apartment when a woman named Virginia knocked on her door. The woman identified herself as a DHS worker and took Ke’Shaun from her hands.

Tina spent time in prison and was released. In October 2016, she was charged with robbery, arson, and murdering 64-year-old Robert Lynch. She was acquitted of all charges in September 2017.

Where is Ke'Shaun Vanderhorst?

Ke’Shaun Vanderhorst has never been found. He is 31 years old if he is still alive. Police are not sure if Tina sold him and he is alive out there somewhere or if he is deceased. Tina remains the prime suspect in his disappearance. Some theorize that Tina’s boyfriend at the time killed Ke’Shaun or that Tina herself killed him, whether accidentally or purposely.

Sources:

https://charleyproject.org/case/keshaun-bryant-vanderhorst

https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1201dmpa.html