WYOMING, Mich. (WOOD) — It’s been two years since a Wyoming mom scalded her nine-month-old daughter in an abuse case a Kent County judge called “deplorable.”
“I’ve been doing this job for ten years here in the criminal division, and I’ve seen one case of child abuse worse than this,” said Circuit Court Judge George Quist in October 2024, who detailed the horrific abuse. “Pouring scalding hot liquid on a nine-month-old child with burns so extensive, they’re hard to describe.”
Wyoming mom gets prison after baby suffers serious burns
Quist sentenced Berline Burkholder, 22 at the time, to four years in prison minimum, and the state terminated her parental rights, as well as those of the victim’s father.
But it’s what happened after the abuse that’s documented in a report published in February 2026 by the Office of the Child Advocate, an independent agency mandated by state law to review certain cases involving Children’s Protective Services and other child welfare institutions…