A DAUGHTER of ‘Youtube mum’ Machelle Hobson has claimed she was locked in an empty room for up to 10 days and threatened with death if she spoke to authorities.
Jordyn Downs, 29, is one of Machelle Hobson’s five biological children.
Hobson, who gained fame through her YouTube channel Fantastic Adventures, also adopted seven children and, Jordyn claims, she fostered more than 40 between 2005 and 2019.
Jordyn says child protective services visited the home multiple times, but Hobson forced her to lie about their living conditions and threatened to kill her if she told the truth.
She also alleges her mother routinely locked her in an empty room for days and, from age nine, put her in charge of caring for her younger foster siblings.
By 16, Jordyn says she was banned from attending school so she could stay home and look after her siblings.
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Hobson was arrested in June 2019 and charged with 30 felony counts related to the abuse and died months later after suffering a non-trauma-related brain injury.
Jordyn, a stay-at-home mum, from Maricopa, Arizona, said: “I was forced to lie when investigators came into the home.
“My mum worked for the state, and somehow she always knew when an investigation would happen.
“She would sit us down and prepare us, even threaten us.
“She wasn’t just threatening to hurt us, she was threatening to kill us if we spoke a word wrong.
“The authorities would ask us if our mum hurt us while she sat in the room.
“A couple of minutes before, she was saying she would kill us; no child is going to speak up against that.”
Jordyn was nine years old when her mum started fostering children.
She said her mum wouldn’t be around much to look after the children, so that responsibility fell to her.
Jordyn said: “Being the oldest girl, my mum put me in charge of taking care of the other kids.
“When we got a foster placement living with us, I was put in charge.
“At nine years old, I would be the one looking after foster children who were being taken from one broken home or ours.
“We were in survival mode – she was never around.”
We were her puppets
Jordyn Downs,,
Jordyn said the abuse her and many of her siblings faced started well before Fantastic Adventures, launched on YouTube in 2012.
She said there were times her mum would lock children in empty rooms with no bed, clothes or food for days on end.
“The abuse happened my whole life. We were her puppets well before YouTube was a thought,” Jordyn said.
“Growing up, I faced a lot of mental abuse. I was told the worst things a child could be told about their appearance.
“She was always talking about my weight, telling me I was too fat and I shouldn’t eat as much.
“Mum would tell us that nobody would believe the abuse we had faced – we were told that constantly.
“She would put us against each other, she would punish you for someone else’s mistakes – she would make sure we hated each other.
Failed by the authorities
“We got locked in rooms, we were threatened to have our food taken away, she would put us in the corner of the room and balance books on our heads.
“At 16 years old, I tried to take an extra bite of food and the next thing I knew, my bed was taken off me, so were my clothes, and I was never allowed to go to school.”
Jordyn said she feels “failed” by the Arizona Department of Child Safety.
She claims there were dozens of investigations launched into her family, which were then dropped.
Jordyn said: “We were stuck in that home to be abused for years. There are dozens of kids who were abused by my mum for 18 years.
“At a very young age, the Arizona Department of Child Safety failed us.
“There were almost a dozen investigations done on my mum’s home for neglect, and nothing happened.
“Children lie, but it is the authorities’ job to look for red flags.”
I was angry when she died
Jordyn Downs,,
In March 2019, the police received a tip from Jordyn’s sister, Megan Hobson, and upon arriving at the home, police saw malnourished children, and several of the children reported that Hobson had subjected them to physical abuse.
Hobson was arrested and charged with 30 felony counts related to the abuse.
Months later, in November 2019, Hobson died in Scottsdale Hospital, Arizona, after she suffered a non-trauma-related brain injury.
Jordyn said: “I was angry when she died. I had spent my whole life trying to get justice for what she did to me.
“For her to be arrested and not even get a sentencing. I felt like death was too easy for her.
“We suffered for years, and she got eight months in jail and not even a full sentence – that is hard for me to accept.”
A spokesperson from the Arizona Department of Child Safety said: “We take great measures to ensure every child is placed in the safest environment possible.
“We thoroughly investigate every report of abuse or neglect we receive.
“Each investigation must determine whether there is sufficient evidence to support an allegation.
“If the evidence does not meet that threshold, the allegation is deemed unsubstantiated. If evidence shows a child is unsafe in their current home, we remove the child to a safe environment.
“Our staff works tirelessly to ensure every child’s safety and well-being, yet we must acknowledge the difficult reality that those intent on harming children may occasionally slip through even the most thorough and strongest protections.
“We also want to emphasize that while a very small number of individuals with bad intentions may pass the licensing and court process, the vast majority of Arizona foster parents are compassionate, dedicated people, and we are grateful they open up their homes to Arizona’s most vulnerable children.”
