Hey everyone and welcome back to Big Mad True Crime where we get Big Mad over True Crime.

I'm your host Heather Ashley and today's case is yet another one where the system

frankly just failed. Small talk sucks so let's dive in.

Jeanette Maples never really had it easy. Her mother Angela came from a dark past of murder

and abuse. Angela's own mother was murdered when she was five and her father would reportedly

abuse her and her siblings by withholding food and if he ever caught them sneaking any he would

beat them. When Angela graduated high school she got the hell out of dodge as quickly as she could

but that meant running off with a carnival worker which resulted in getting into some pretty heavy

drugs. Soon Angela met Anthony who had wind up becoming Jeanette's biological father. The

pair had three kids together, two boys and then Jeanette. Nothing was ever really calm or peaceful

in that house and in 1995 when Jeanette was only one and a half California DHS was called

and all three kids were removed from the house due to neglect abuse and drug use.

Anthony went to jail for some time while the three kids went into foster care but

Angela maintained some form of normalcy when it came to the reunification process with Jeanette.

She stuck to her scheduled visits moved out of her car and got a job and in 2001 after

spending five and a half years in foster care Jeanette was reunited with her mother and her

sister who was three years younger than her and had been born a few years after Angela's other

three kids had been taken away. Jeanette was the only of the original three kids who were returned

to Angela's care. Her two older brothers had actually written letters to the judge presiding

over the case asking not to be reunited with their mother into remain in foster care and

their wishes were respected. Around this time Angela began dating a man named Richard whom she

met through his cousin. By 2002 they were married. This was Jeanette's second shot at having a

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