Utah mom convicted of killing foster son now faces new charge of abusing another child

By Pat Reavy

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    ROOSEVELT, Utah (KSL) — A Roosevelt woman convicted of killing her 2-year-old foster son in 2020 is facing new allegations accusing her of abusing her young son.

Lisa Jo Vanderlinden, 46, was charged Monday in 8th District Court with child abuse, a class A misdemeanor.

The Duchesne County Sheriff’s Office said it was notified that Vanderlinden’s 9-year-old adopted son was slapped in the face by her. When the boy was interviewed by deputies on Wednesday, “he disclosed that he was open-handedly slapped by Lisa on the face and this left a red mark on his face for two days,” according to a police booking affidavit.

The boy said the slap had occurred within the past year when he was 8 and “also disclosed about this slapping incident that it happened more than once and it was the same way every time,” the affidavit states.

In 2020, Vanderlinden was sentenced to one year in jail and 14 years of probation after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of child abuse homicide, a first-degree felony. She was originally charged with aggravated murder in the August 2018 death of Lucas Call, whom police said she saw as “difficult” and didn’t want to adopt.

The Utah Attorney General’s Office had argued for the maximum sentence of five years to life in prison and called the judge’s decision to sentence her to a year in jail “beyond disappointing” and “a travesty” and said the sentence “undermines the confidence of the public in our justice system’s ability to protect kids from abuse and homicide.”

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