I want to get out of this.
 Her mom's did
foster care for 14 years. She's adopted
these seven kids.
 They make YouTube
videos.
 What's the longest she's ever
made you go without eating?
 4 days
straight. 4 days.
 No food and no water.
No food, no water.
 I'm going to have a
better family.
 You want to have a better
family?
To kill me. With over 800,000
subscribers at its height in 2019, the
Fantastic Adventures YouTube channel is
a showcase of wholesome family
entertainment in the digital age. But as
Michelle Hopson's adopted kids paint a
picture of perfect childhood joy in
front of the cameras, they are
mercilessly subjected to cruelty and
sadism behind the scenes. It's only when
one brave child comes forward with the
truth that police realize the monstrous
horrors that have unfolded in this house
of misery.
Names of all children in this video have
been changed to protect their identity.
On March 13th, 2019, police in Maricopa,
Arizona field a call from a young woman
named Megan who wants to file a
disturbing report. Please note that all
suspects charged with a crime are
presumed innocent unless and until
proven guilty in a court of law.
 Okay.
And what did you want to report?
 Uh
child. I guess that sums it up to us.
Okay. Is your child involved or is it
something that you know that's happening
to someone else's child or
 It's my
sibling. It's my little sibling.
 Oh,
okay.
 Yeah, it's my family. With these
dreadful words hanging in the air, the
dispatcher arranges for officers to meet
with Megan and her sister Jordan outside
the Maricopa Police Department. The
responding officers quickly realize that
this isn't just about one child.
 So,
it's nine people in the home. Two are
two adult brothers and seven are foster
kids. Her mom's did foster care for 14
years. Um, she's adopted these seven
kids. Megan explains that her adopted
sister Stacy has made some shocking
allegations. With cell phone in hand,
Megan began recording Stacy's story of
brutal mistreatment at the hands of her
adoptive mother, Michelle Hopson.
 And
when was this video taken?
 Today.
 Today.
Okay.
How where she locks me in a room with
only
Tik Tok. Doesn't give me blanket.
What kind of room is it?
a closet and it's a tile floor. No
carpet, just a empty green room.
 How
many other people sleep in there?
That room is in your house in the house.
It's in my mom's bedroom.
She like got all the carpet ripped out
and put it on.
 Is there a lock on this?
She doesn't let us eat for at least two
days straight or maybe more.
 No food and
no water.
 No food, no water. Do you get
to go to the bathroom whenever you need?
No. Once I had a pee and she locked me
in that room cuz cuz I did something and
I peed myself cuz she didn't let me go.
Cuz she like that for everyone.
 Yes.
That's why she gives everyone pull-ups
cuz she knows that they're going to pee.
As vile as her stories have been thus
far, she will spill even more dark
secrets before the night is through. For
now, however, the police have heard
enough to know that a home visit at the
very least will be necessary. They talk
with Jordan and Megan, who are
Michelle's biological children, to get a
description of their mother.
 Why female?
She's brown hair.
 How tall?
 She's
probably
 Yeah. They make YouTube videos.
That's their income. That's all of them.
And my mother's my mother's income and
everything. Indeed, Michelle's adopted
children are stars of a sort. The family
began shooting videos in 2017 after
admiring the success of other kid
oriented channels with a variety of
playful skits featuring the children.
The Fantastic Adventures channel is a
smash hit by 2019, attracting more than
800,000 subscribers. Police must now
find out if these seemingly joyful young
YouTube stars were being tormented
behind the cameras the entire time. They
head out to the Hopson residence with no
real certainty about how Michelle will
react or what kind of dreadful sights
they might encounter beyond this front
door.
Hi, how's it going?
 Donnie,
 nice to meet
you. Nice to meet you.
 My name is
Officer Bernice. I'm with the Maropa
Police Department.
 Okay.
 We need to do a
welfare check in this house.
 Oh, okay.
Do you?
 Yeah, I do. Um, where is your
mother at?
 She's upstairs. You want to
go get her?
 Um, yeah, I can go up there
and get her.
 Okay, Mom.
Mom.
 Mom.
She's up here.
 Okay. Can I go up there
with you?
 Yeah.
 Okay. Thank you.
Stand up.
 Sorry.
What?
It's a police department.
 Why?
 Hi.
 Can I
help you?
 I'm donning.
 Oh, I'm sorry. I
didn't mean to turn off the fight, don't
you?
 What's going on?
 You mind if I talk
to you?
 Yeah.
 You want to take the kids
downstairs? Yeah. Come on, guys.
Okay. Have a seat.
 I need you to go
downstairs. Is there any other kids up
here?
 Yeah.
Okay.
 Come on.
Yeah. Hi. Have a seat.
 All right.
Whatever you want to do.
 Hold on.
 With
seven kids running around this expansive
house, wrangling them all downstairs is
no easy trick. As the cop goes to assist
with the task, he notices something that
matches what Stacy said in her video.
Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Watching.
Yeah.
 Hey, I need you guys. I need you
guys to go downstairs. Okay.
 Okay.
 Is
there anybody else in this room?
 Come
on. No. No. No. Leave him alone. Come
here. Come here.
 Come here, buddy.
Oh, you had a pull-up on.
 Yeah.
 Okay.
He has accidents at night. So,
 okay.
Okay,
 pull up.
 Let's go.
 Okay.
 While the
officer tries to round up one last
straggler, Michelle appears to grow
uneasy with him being in her bedroom.
Can you come here, sir?
Sir, come here. Hold on.
Sir,
I need you downstairs.
 They'll gather
them downstairs. With the children
accounted for, the officer explains to
Michelle why the police are in her
house. Her reaction is not one of shock.
All right, here's what's going on.
 Okay.
Like I told you, my name is Donnie. All
right.
Uh to be quite frank with you, we
received a report of child child
neglect.
 Okay.
 All right. So that's why
we're here. Okay.
 From who?
 Um right now
that's irrelevant.
 Okay. So this is
what's going to happen. Okay. Just tell
me what's going on.
 We need to interview
all of your kids separately. Okay.
 Okay.
And we need to conduct a search of the
residents. Now, we could do these two
ways. Okay. Legally, you're entitled to
Can we come back here cuz I don't see a
warrant or anything, so I don't know.
Yeah. Yeah. You're fine. We're making
sure there's nobody else in the house.
Okay.
 With Michelle concerned that her
rights are being violated, the officer
assures her that they are going to do
this by the book.
 Constitutionally, you
know, you have your rights. One of the
ways that we are entitled to do this is
with your consent. Okay? So it means you
give me your consent to go through your
house and look for any evidence that
might be possibly used against you.
Okay? The other way is that we get a
search warrant and then we go through
the residence with the search warrant.
Okay. So those are the two options.
Okay. I would like to speak to the kids
freely with your consent. You're not
going to be there when this is going on.
And but again, you also have the right
to say no, you're not going to interview
my kids. Okay. Uh but right now we are
doing a welfare check on the children.
We're going to talk to them, make sure
they're okay. There's no bruises,
anything like that. Okay. So, what what
do you think about this?
Um I think we're in the middle of a
packing scenario and my house is trashed
cuz we've dug stuff out of everywhere
and I don't approve of you really going
through my residence at this particular
point in time.
 Okay.
 So, however, yeah,
I don't really approve of that. You
could talk to my children. I mean, my
children are all safe and okay. I can't
I I don't I I want to know what the
report thing was prior to this.
 This
won't be the last time that Michelle
will request the specific details of the
report. But while the police maintain
their professionalism, they let her know
that she's not in control of this
situation.
 I would like to talk to one
of my daughters because she just started
crying and she said she she knows it was
not talking to any of your kids. said
she knows it was my other she knows it
was my adult child who called on me. So,
I'm wondering why she's
 I don't know. I
don't know. But right now, you're not
going to have any access to your kids.
With Michelle detained in the upstairs
living area, the officers are free to
ask questions to the adopted children
downstairs.
 Do you like living here?
Yeah.
 Yeah. You have fun here?
 Yeah.
Yeah.
 What happened to your head there?
I was in a fight with my brother.
 You
were in a fight with your brother?
 Yeah.
Yeah. What are the diapers on the floor
for? You got small kids here?
 Yeah.
Don't take water too fast. I'm going to
get pick up.
You not get water very often?
 You don't?
How do you eat over here?
 We just wanted
to check on you guys, make sure
everything was okay. You remember I told
you that we were going to check on you
every now and then, right?
 Oh, yeah.
Yeah. As the cops begin the process of
finding out what's been happening in
this home, Michelle continues to demand
answers.
 Can I talk to the senior staff,
Lieutenant?
 Um, I don't see why not. If
you really want to talk to him right
now,
 sure thing.
I'm just asking what the complaints
were.
 Um, we got some we got a call
about possible child.
 But what what type
of child?
 Physical.
 Okay. Brown. Okay.
So, I can't tell you that because I
didn't take the call. So, I don't know
who called.
 Um, but I know based on the
call that we need to speak to all the
kids.
 Sure.
 Okay. Any other questions I
can?
Not really. I mean, I'm just, you know,
I'm shocked.
 Understandably. So, what
happens, Michelle, is when we get calls
like this, we just don't take a person's
word for it. God. That's why we come in
and we'll want to do an actual check of
the kids.
 Sure.
 But I don't want to call
DCS on you or any other person
 that I
don't know if this is true. I don't know
you. You know,
 Michelle expresses a
certain relief that the police aren't
going to necessarily call the Arizona
Department of Child Services, an
organization she's had plenty of contact
with over the last few years. Their
interventions thus far have accomplished
nothing, however, which is why it seems
that Stacy, the young girl who recorded
the original video, is not completely
confident that anything is going to be
different this time.
 I'm here to help.
Okay. I want to make sure nothing
happens to you or your brothers or your
sisters.
 Okay. Okay. Do you understand
what that means? Okay. What do you think
it means? You need to help people like
if there's anybody bad you come and save
us from them.
 Okay. Yeah. Okay. You're
fine, baby. You're fine. You want to sit
down? You don't have to cry. You're
fine. Here we go. Here we go. Yeah. Sit
down on this bench, huh? Here we go. Sit
down on the bench.
Why are you playing?
Thank you.
 I want to have a better
family.
 You want to have a better
family?
I'm sorry.
The young girl desperately hopes that
the end of her nightmare has finally
come. And when she tells the officer
more of what Michelle has done to her,
it's clear that salvation has arrived.
Not a moment too soon.
 I know it's
really hard to leave my mom, but
Yeah.
You know that spray that you use when
there's like bad people and stuff?
 Yeah.
Yeah.
 P
E R.
 Yeah.
 Spray.
 Pepper spray.
 Yeah.
I'm sorry. I didn't hear you.
 Empty. Two
of those. two of those bottles.
 Okay.
The allegations against Michelle are
growing more shocking by the moment, but
right now she's more concerned about who
is behind this police report in the
first place.
 She's the little blonde one
down there. She as soon as my son said
the police are here and they're coming
up the stairs, she starts crying and she
goes, "I know who it is. I know who it
is." And I'm like, "What are you talking
about?"
 And she goes, "It's Jordan."
which is my adult one of my adult
daughters.
 Okay.
 And she has a very big
vengeance against me right now. So I cut
her off. I She did try to contact me and
try to um say, "Well, if I want to be a
part of her life, blah blah blah." Um I
had to jump through these hoops and
whatnot. I basically just blocked her
and I said, "No, I'm fine with the way
my life is.
 Um I don't need that extra
stress in my life of somebody who wishes
I was dead and is waiting for their
inheritance." You know what I'm saying?
It's like she literally the last time I
saw her, she's like, "I'm just waiting
for the the life insurance."
 Whatever
the truth might be regarding Michelle's
relationship with her daughter, Jordan,
it doesn't change the fact that her
other adult daughter, Megan, was every
bit as instrumental in getting the cops
involved. Of course, Michelle doesn't
know that yet and continues to blame
Jordan. She's always threatened to call
DCS on me because she knows that every
parent's worst nightmare is having DCS
called on them. She's threatened to make
up stuff in the past. She's threatened
to, you know, just do all kinds of
stuff. If I looked at my children wrong,
I was using them, you know,
 but of
course DCS has been out to Michelle's
house on many prior occasions. Every
time like every time my brother runs
away and CPS comes, he makes us just
like
there's nothing.
Okay, I'm just listening. Okay,
 you guys
saw the video that I I was talking to
the camera and my sister Megan was
talking to me.
 Yep.
 It's old room. It's
not my room upstairs. I want the door
closed.
 You want this door closed?
 Yeah,
cuz I don't want them here. Okay,
 I'm
going to get in trouble for safe.
 All
right, come on in. Yeah, it's pretty
tight. But hey,
 whatever makes you feel
safe. Okay,
it's hard to leave my mom, but I have
to.
 I don't want you telling my other
siblings.
 We're not going to tell them.
Can I ask them if
 if everything's okay
at home? Can I I'm not going to tell
them anything.
 Something else I want to
tell you guys.
 Yeah, fine.
 I haven't
dinner. She won't let me have dinner.
And please me and I
and she 4 days before
 4 days. You
haven't eaten in 4 days.
 No, before.
Okay.
 Since Michelle started
homeschooling the children, things have
not been the same. It clearly is not a
strict curriculum. However, as Stacy
says she's not allowed to do any school
work, and Michelle herself tells the
police that she mostly focuses on
teaching the children life skills
because none of them are going to be
quote rocket scientists. As the officers
take in the serious acts of cruelty and
neglect that have taken place in this
home, Michelle grows impatient once
again with the lack of information.
Somebody let me know what's going on.
So, they said you had more questions.
I'm just Yeah, you said you were
interviewing one last child. So,
 yeah.
Wondering where we are from here.
 Um,
right now, um, based on some information
that we received, we are going to have
contacts. Okay. Why? I'm not going to
release that information to you. All I
can tell you is that there's going to be
an investigation.
So that's
 all I've ever done is spank my
child. I spanked the child. Like what?
As Michelle complains about the
inconvenience of a police investigation.
Her adopted daughter gives the cops a
glimpse at the fear her tyrant mom has
instilled in her.
 Is there anything in
here that you want to eat right now
while we're waiting? Is seriously
anything? Look, you got some chips. You
got
 No, no, no. Listen, don't worry
about that.
 She's going to sit on my
bag.
 No, she's not. No, she's not. No,
she's not. You are not going to talk to
mom right now. Okay, grab a grab a bag
of chips. Go ahead. Grab a bag of chips.
Perfect. Sit down. Okay. Enjoy. Look at
Look at me. I I want to help you. The
realization that this child is too
scared of her mom to risk eating a small
bag of potato chips is almost
unthinkable, but it's clear that Stacy
is justified in her fear given what she
shared with the officer.
 I couldn't
stand it.
 I know. I know, baby.
 To kill
me.
 It's horrible
thing in my neck.
It's horrible, baby.
 This is an
allegation the police are already
familiar with as Stacy spoke about it in
the original video. Like just two days
ago, she said cuz I was talking to my
brother. He said he he was I was talking
to him
 and she said she's going to slice
my neck open.
Stacy tells the officer it isn't
uncommon for Michelle to use such
brutality and threats of violence to
keep the children in line.
 Literally
today she got that I woke her up from a
nap and she woke up from her nap. She
said, "Um, you guys don't get dinner." I
was like, "It wasn't me. I didn't wake
you up." Which it was cuz I wanted
dinner. I was hungry.
And she was like, "Well, you don't get
dinner." And I started crying about it
cuz I was grieving. Everybody's hungry.
And she's like, "If you don't shut it
up, I'm going to take you into the
bathroom and slap your mouth and make
sure I cut your lip open. And I'll do it
a couple more times to make sure it's
nice and deep and makes make sure it's
Baby,
I don't know if I still have them.
You're fine, baby. Baby,
 I have all of
them cuz I'm very special.
 Okay. Okay.
 I
want to get out of this house.
 As Stacy
tearfully recounts the unspeakable
horrors that she and the other children
in the house have been subjected to,
Michelle maintains the role of the good
mother who is being falsely accused.
Trying to search my brain.
You're allowed to spank the child,
right?
 As long as it's used for
discipline. Absolutely. Yep.
Be surprised.
 But it's not at all clear
that Michelle's idea of discipline fits
the standard definition.
 Pull-ups.
 Why?
Cuz I have accident.
 Oh, yeah. Do you
have any injuries or what?
 It's cuz I
think water.
 You ran through your mom
the last time you said, right?
 Yeah.
 Cuz
you were afraid. What usually happens? I
can't even remember. So tell me what
happened last night.
 I either get stink
or like
I don't want to say
when you said you get beat. What do you
mean by that?
[Music]
Anything else?
 No, not really.
While Joseph may not share further
details, if any, Stacy is fully willing
to describe the hell she and her
siblings have been living in.
 Literally,
she takes her to his armpit and twisted
it by her nails. Her nails are hum and
takes it and twisted it and spit in
their face. She literally takes a
mouthful spit and spits it in our face.
I don't know what kind of mom does this
to us. And then she always tells us to
lie. I don't want to lie anymore. I want
to live with me.
 As Stacy continues to
delve into the horrifying conditions of
Michelle's brutal dictatorship, it
becomes obvious that food plays a major
role in the punishment of the children.
And then mom makes a lie. You guys, you
don't get anything for 4 days straight
cuz you being horrible. No food, no
water. Haven't even had water once
today.
 Eat these strips. Eat them.
You're not in trouble. You're not in
trouble for eating right now. Okay. I'm
telling you to eat these chips. Okay.
 I
was like, cops cops don't even care for
being horrible. They still feed you. She
said on the Bible it says do not feed
kids if they're bad.
 It's not true.
 Take
take baths and really beat kids. It says
that on the Bible. She said
 I love you
and I don't even know you.
 I love you
too cuz you're saving me from this hell.
I know, baby. While her adopted daughter
crouches in a pantry eating chips,
Michelle seems to realize that it might
not look good if the children reveal
that they've yet to eat dinner at nearly
10:00 at night.
 I have leftover pizza
today in the oven that I was going to
heat up for my children. Can they eat
that?
 Yeah. Somebody the boys do it
ask them to do that because it just
dawned on me that the older children
Yeah. The older children have not eaten
their
 Okay. ones that have not eaten.
The two babies have eaten.
 The news that
they will soon be fed appears to come as
a surprise to at least one child.
 Your
brothers are going to heat up some
pizza.
All of you.
All of you.
 He's clearly not the only
one caught off guard by this surprise
meal.
 But I think she's feeding you
because she's scared that you guys are
going to say you haven't.
 That's why we
just gave him all that stuff.
 I know.
No. Everybody knows he's not allowed to
eat for a week. One really trying to
make it. She's like, "You're not eating
for like maybe two weeks, maybe three
weeks, maybe for a month."
Okay. I can tell how you guys are acting
with the fruit snacks and with the
drinks cuz you guys have it. I know
that. I know that. I can see it. Baby,
 I
was going to lie, but I couldn't.
You don't need to lie. Okay. You don't
need to lie. In the meantime, even
without a search warrant in hand, the
cops can't help but notice some odd and
perhaps even suspicious sights in the
house.
 Why is the key in the door here?
Huh?
 Why is the key in the door?
We when we were doing foster care, we
had to basically have everything locked
up.
 Oh, really?
 Yeah. Like any sort of
chemicals, like any sort of like
hardware cons.
[Music]
And now it's the playroom.
 The play
room.
Wow.
 It's a playroom where we
The police will soon have their search
warrant, however, and when they speak to
Michelle about the process, she has a
sudden epiphany.
 If they conduct the
search warrant and there's nothing found
to support those allegations, then that
still benefits that benefits you
 know
what it is now.
 And I know that
 I know
what it is now. And okay, but
they still have to do their job. So
 I
know what it is now.
 What do you mean by
that?
 I just I you you I just think that
because of what my daughter knows, I
know what it is now because who knows
what I disarray my house because I bet
you anything. Just know that the only
weapon I have in my house is a can of
pepper spray. Mhm.
 And I have a feeling
it has to do with that
because my daughter.
 Okay.
 I've been
rapping my brain all freaking for hours
right now or forever since you guys got
here.
 I know.
 And it's been hurting.
What have I done?
 This is the one.
It's perhaps not so surprising that
Michelle would make a connection between
pepper spray and her daughter.
Considering a story that Stacy told the
cops earlier,
 my daughter Jordan, do you
know called you?
 Mhm.
 She came home from
work. I haven't seen her in like four
months.
And she came home from work. It was late
at night. She was hungry. So, she burnt
her pizza cuz she fell asleep on the
couch. And so, mom told me to go get the
pepper spray and try to pepper spray her
in the face. So, she ran out of out of
the house with pepper spray on her face.
The DCS should be coming out and they
should be taking
um custody of the kids.
Why?
 Uh based on the allegations
and they'll be talking to you as well.
Police execute a search warrant on the
residence and it isn't long before they
find many troubling things that seem to
verify exactly what the children have
told them. Two cans of pepper spray are
found in a drawer precisely matching the
description that Stacy gave them earlier
in the evening. It's
 in her room.
 Okay.
The black one and pink one.
 Okay.
 She's
emptied both on me before. The police
also get a good look at the infamous
green room upstairs. The isolated prison
that Stacy alleges she and her siblings
were locked inside for hours, if not
longer.
Just a green room. There's a lock on it.
He makes me sleep with only underwear
and stuff on a tile floor. No blankets,
no nothing. According to Michelle and
her adult sons, the green room is an
innocent place meant only to be used for
special effects sequences in their
Fantastic Adventures videos. Police also
speak to Michelle's neighbor who says
living next door to seven young children
has not been the experience she would
have expected.
 I never see those kids
outside ever.
 You never see them
outside?
 No.
 Okay.
 That's really
surprising.
 Yeah. Yeah. You know there
only occasionally I see one of them go
over to the mailbox and that's it.
 Okay.
For a family that was so extraordinarily
public in some ways, it seems they kept
most of their lives hidden behind a
closed door.
 Marco Police Department,
open the door.
Marco Police Department here now.
Hold up, Brian.
Coming out.
All right, I'm going to go down the
hallway. First door, right?
 Police are
back at the residence days later with a
new warrant. They don't expect anyone to
be in the house, of course. The seven
children were rescued from the home in
the early morning hours of March 14th.
The next day, police arrested Michelle
Hopson and her two adult sons, Ryan and
Logan Hackne, while awaiting trial on a
litany of felony charges, including
seven counts of child. Michelle fell ill
and was released from jail for
hospitalization. 3 days later, she
suffered cardiac arrest and was declared
temporarily unfit for trial. While her
overall condition improved over the
coming months, she took a turn for the
worse later that year and died on
November 12th, 2019,
8 months after her arrest. In a news
conference, the panel county prosecutor
said her untimely death came with a
silver lining. "These kids don't have to
testify," he said, which means they can
now begin the healing process. YouTube
terminated the Fantastic Adventures
channel in March of 2019.