In June 2025, our lives changed overnight. We discovered that our 8 year old granddaughter was being physically and emotionally abused by her father (my son) and stepmother. The day we intervened and reported the abuse, the situation escalated into extreme violence. Our son attempted to murder us, and the matter is now part of an ongoing state criminal case.

Since that moment, we have been living inside two simultaneous court battles:

• A custody case to remove our granddaughter from an abusive environment and keep her safe

• A state criminal case related to the abuse and violent events

From the outside, it may be hard to understand the weight of this. Inside it, every day has required courage we did not know we had.

We own and operate our own business, and we have continued working throughout this ordeal — but the mental and emotional toll of protecting a child, navigating constant legal pressure, and living with fear has been overwhelming. Our income dropped drastically as we fought to stay present, functional, and focused while under relentless stress.

At nearly 60 years old, we have drained our savings, have no retirement left to draw from, and are now behind on everything we own. We are facing the very real possibility of losing everything and starting over — and we would do it again if it means keeping her safe.

Every dollar we have had has gone toward legal fees, court costs, and therapy to help a deeply traumatized child heal. We have already paid a substantial amount just to get this far.

Despite everything she has endured, our granddaughter continues to amaze us. In the middle of all of this, she made the Principal’s List at school. We are so proud of her strength, resilience, and heart.

We are also living with ongoing fear. The individuals who harmed her are no longer incarcerated, and the sense of danger has not disappeared. The emotional strain of protecting her, helping her grieve, and trying to hold our own lives together has been devastating — more painful than we can put into words.

This fundraiser is for urgent legal fees that must be paid by Monday to continue this case. Our attorney does not accept payment plans, and the full amount is required to proceed. Without these funds, the case stops — and our ability to protect her ends.

Asking for help like this is TRULY one of the hardest things we have ever done. We know there are many worthy causes in the world, and we don’t take this lightly. But this is a child whose safety, healing, and future are on the line.

If you are able to help — in any amount — please know that you are not rescuing people who quit. You are standing beside grandparents who have fought with everything they have and are asking for help only because the fight has required more than one family can carry alone.

Every contribution matters. Every share helps.

Thank you for reading, for caring, and for standing with us in this urgent moment.

With gratitude,

Ally & Wade

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UPDATE JULY 12, 2026 — EXTREMELY URGENT: THIS HAS TAKEN A SERIOUS NEW TURN

Our granddaughter remains with us at this time.

But, please read below to understand how this has taken a very serious new turn.

The funds needed to continue protecting her stability, provide her therapy, secure necessary professional testimony, and maintain the family-court representation affecting her future are nearly depleted. We need immediate financial help.

How This Began

On June 7, 2025, our lives changed overnight.

That morning, our then-eight-year-old granddaughter made disclosures to us of physical and emotional abuse in her home.

Later that day, the situation escalated into armed violence inside our home. We have consistently reported that the two individuals we believe were responsible for abusing our granddaughter came to our home. During that confrontation, they repeatedly threatened to take both of our lives, and each of them pointed a firearm directly at my forehead.

A physical struggle followed. Wade disarmed one of them, (see story below). Immediately after they left our home we called 911, and law enforcement responded.

Our original account of how this began remains included below this update.

These events have since become the subject of multiple legal proceedings, and many of the allegations surrounding what happened remain disputed. We are therefore not presenting every allegation as though it has already been proven in court.

What is not disputed is that, on June 9, 2025, the family court entered an emergency custody order placing our granddaughter in our care, where she remains today.

From that moment forward, our focus has been on her safety, stability, therapy, education, healing, and the legal work necessary to protect her future.

What Happened After June 7, 2025

The June 7, 2025 incident initially resulted in criminal charges against those two individuals.

According to the public record, one individual was charged with two counts of Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon, and another was charged with one count of Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon.

Those charges were later reduced to Assault — Threat of Bodily Injury and resolved through Judicial Diversion.

Judicial diversion is not the same thing as a trial resulting in a judgment of guilt. If the terms of diversion are successfully completed, the individuals may be eligible to seek expungement of the charges.

While those criminal cases were proceeding, we continued fighting in family court to keep our granddaughter safe and stable.

That family-court fight has not ended.

It has expanded.

Additional custody-related proceedings remain pending. We are also moving forward with a termination-of-parental-rights case.

Our attorneys must be able to respond to legal actions, prepare evidence, appear at hearings, take or defend depositions when necessary, and continue the family-court work affecting her care and future. Necessary professionals must also be able to provide testimony so that the court can hear evidence relevant to her safety, stability, and well-being.

THE VERY SERIOUS TURN...

Then, more than a year after the June 7, 2025 incident, our lives took another unexpected turn.

On June 29, 2026, Wade and I were arrested and charged in connection with that same incident from June 7, 2025. We are scheduled to appear but there has been no trial as of yet.

Wade and I have both been charged with Especially Aggravated Kidnapping.

Wade has also been charged with two counts of Aggravated Assault.

These are extremely serious criminal charges. A conviction for Especially Aggravated Kidnapping can carry a sentence measured in literal decades.

Many people understandably assume that our arrests and these charges mean a judge heard both sides, reviewed the evidence, and decided there was enough proof to move the case forward.

That is not what happened here.

Our case began through the Tennessee grand jury process.

The criminal case against us was not sent to the grand jury by another court after a preliminary hearing where both sides were present, evidence was heard from both sides, and a judge decided to send the case forward.

Under Tennessee law, a person claiming to have knowledge or proof of a public offense may testify before a grand jury.

In our case, statements and allegations concerning the same June 7, 2025 incident were presented through that process.

We strongly dispute those allegations.

Grand jury proceedings are conducted in secret. We were not notified to appear. We were not permitted to attend. Our attorney was not present. No one representing us was there to present our evidence or our account of what happened.

The grand jury then returned indictments against us.

The grand jury’s role was not to determine whether we were guilty. It did not conduct a trial, hear both sides of the case, or decide guilt or innocence. It decided only whether indictments should be returned.

An indictment is a formal written accusation returned by a grand jury charging a person with a crime.

It is not a conviction.

There has been no trial.

No judge or trial jury has heard both sides.

We have not been found guilty of any crime.

We strongly deny the allegations against us.

We are sharing this information because our supporters need to understand the full gravity of what our family is now facing while we continue the family-court fight involving our granddaughter.

Why We Need Help Now

From June 2025 through July 2026, our family has paid more than $64,200 in legal expenses arising from this family crisis and its legal aftermath.

That amount is provided to show the financial impact of everything that has happened.

We have continued working and operating our own business throughout this ordeal, but the mental, emotional, legal, and financial strain has caused our income to drop drastically.

At nearly 60 years old, we are now behind on everything we own and facing the real possibility of losing everything we have spent our lives building.

We do not say that for sympathy.

We say it because we need people to understand that we have not casually asked others to carry a burden we were unwilling to carry ourselves.

For more than a year, we have worked, paid attorneys, attended hearings, responded to legal actions, provided a home, supported our granddaughter’s education, helped her return to therapy, and done everything within our ability to keep moving forward.

But the financial burden has now become more than one family can carry alone.

The funds available for the ongoing family-court fight are now very low.

Necessary professional testimony alone can cost thousands of dollars for a single day.

These expenses are not months or years away.

Her therapy and healing are happening now.

The family-court cases are active now.

The legal work affecting her care, stability, and future must continue now.

We cannot pause a child’s emotional healing or the family-court work affecting her future while we attempt to recover financially.

That is why this fundraiser is extremely urgent.

What Your Donation Will Support

Contributions to this fundraiser will be used only for legitimate needs connected to our granddaughter’s care and the family-court proceedings affecting her safety and stability, including:

* Her continuing therapy and care

* Necessary professional testimony

* Family-court attorney fees connected to her custody, care, and stability

* Court preparation and other legitimate litigation expenses connected to protecting her care, stability, and future

* Other necessary child-related professional or family-court expenses that arise as these cases continue

The Child at the Center of This

In the middle of court hearings, legal accusations, financial devastation, fear, and uncertainty, our granddaughter has continued to amaze us.

Despite everything she has experienced, she earned the Principal’s List during all four grading periods of the school year.

She also received the President’s Education Award for her outstanding academic achievement throughout the year.

She continues showing strength, resilience, intelligence, and heart.

But a child should not have to be strong enough to carry what the adults and legal system around her are fighting over.

She deserves the ability to go to school, attend therapy, feel safe in her home, heal at her own pace, and know that the people caring for her will continue doing everything possible to protect her stability.

We are doing everything we can to give her that.

We have not stopped working.

We have not stopped fighting.

We have not walked away because it became frightening, expensive, exhausting, or personally devastating.

But courage does not pay the costs of therapy and care.

Determination does not replenish the funds needed for family-court representation.

Love alone cannot cover the cost of professional testimony, court preparation, custody litigation, and the continuing care of a traumatized child.

We need help now.

Please Help Us Continue

If you are able to donate, please give now. Any amount helps support our granddaughter’s therapy and care, necessary professional testimony, and the family-court representation affecting her safety, stability, and future.

If you cannot donate, please share this fundraiser immediately. One share may place this story in front of someone who is able to help.

Please pray for our granddaughter.

Please pray for truth to be revealed, for her continued protection and healing, for wisdom in every courtroom, and for the strength we need to keep standing.

You are not being asked to rescue people who quit.

You are standing beside grandparents who have worked, sacrificed, spent everything they could access, and continued fighting for more than a year—and who are asking for help because protecting one child has required more than one family can carry alone.

We are not giving up on her.

Thank you for every prayer, every share, every contribution, and every person who chooses to stand with us during this extremely urgent time.

With gratitude,

Allison and Wade

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UPDATE September 12, 2026 -

Yesterday, we began the court process in the criminal case against us for especially aggravated kidnapping. Our next court date is October 7. There was no final resolution yesterday, so we continue forward.

There is so much we cannot say publicly while this case is ongoing. But there is something we can say without hesitation:

We maintain our innocence 100%.

More than anything, we are asking you to pray. Pray that the truth is known. Pray that it is unmistakably clear. Pray for wisdom for everyone involved and that justice is done.

The last 15 months have been some of the hardest days of our lives. Our family has experienced more change, loss, fear, and uncertainty than I know how to put into words. Being arrested and accused of such a heinous crime, actually going to jail, seeing our mugshots online, and facing everything that has followed has been something I don't think I could adequately describe even if I tried.

I don't know that we could ever fully explain the gravity of what these 15 months have been for our family.

The impact has reached nearly every area of our lives. We gave up one of our vehicles and now have only our Jeep. We have also put our home up for sale because we can no longer afford to keep it. Selling our home has become urgent, both because of our current financial circumstances and because we need the proceeds to help pay the continuing costs of ongoing legal proceedings involving the future and safety of a child we love.

Even with the sale of our home, we expect to be short of what will be required to see these legal matters through.

The public nature of all of this has carried another cost as well. Having our arrests and mugshots online, while facing accusations we maintain are untrue, has taken a significant toll on our business and our ability to earn an income.

But we also want to tell you something beautiful that has happened in the middle of all of it.

We have drawn closer to God.

If there is purpose in what we have walked through, we know that at least part of that purpose has been learning to draw near to Him—to trust Him in a way we never have before. Sometimes that trust has been day by day. Other times, quite literally, it has been minute by minute.

We have learned that trusting God does not always mean understanding what He is doing. Sometimes it means standing still when you cannot see what comes next and believing that He can see what you cannot.

And we need to say something to every person who has supported us:

We have not stood on our own two feet through this.

You have helped hold us up.

Yes, your financial support has helped us tremendously through expenses we never imagined our family would face. Your donations have helped us meet legal expenses and continue defending ourselves at a time when the financial weight of everything happening to our family has been overwhelming.

But what you have given us has been so much more than money. Your messages, your prayers, your encouragement, your kindness, and simply knowing that people are standing beside us have carried us through moments when we were exhausted and didn't know how we were going to keep going.

There really aren't adequate words for that.

This case is not over, and neither are the expenses that come with defending ourselves. If you are able to continue helping or sharing our fundraiser, we are deeply grateful. And if you cannot help financially, please know that your prayers and your encouragement truly matter to us.

So as we wait for October 7, we are asking for your continued prayers—not for vengeance, not for harm to anyone, but simply for truth and justice.

That the truth would be known.

That the truth would be clear.

And that God would guide us through whatever comes next.

We will continue to update you as we are able and as it is appropriate while these matters are pending.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for continuing to stand with our family.

We will never forget it.

— Ally & Wade

Urgent Help to Protect Our Granddaughter

Still $2,413 to go. Help us build momentum.