Scott Schollenberger will spend the rest of his life in prison as punishment for the abuse he heaped upon his son.
Matthew Toth, Lebanon Daily News
Almost two years after he was charged, an Annville father has pleaded guilty and will spend the rest of his life in prison for his role in the tortuous death of his 12-year-old son, Max Schollenberger.
Scott Schollenberger Jr., 43, on Thursday pleaded guilty before Judge Bradford Charles on charges that included criminal homicide, endangering the welfare of children, and criminal conspiracy to endanger the welfare of children, according to court officials. His plea came during a pre-trial conference hearing.
The Lebanon Daily News reached out to District Attorney Pier Hess Graf’s office, but did not receive a response for comment before publication.
Schollenberger was sentenced to the state correctional facility for the rest of his natural life without the possibility of parole.
On May 26, 2020, Annville Township Police and members of the Lebanon County Detective Bureau found the body of Maxwell in his second-floor room.
“Both the bed and the victim’s body were wholly covered in fecal matter,” documents state. “The door and its frame contained three metal hooks … to lock the child in his bedroom.”
For years, Max was hidden from the outside world, locked inside the dark, feces-ridden room with little food or water. Officials found the boy naked on the bed, in a room with no toys or furniture.
Police filed homicide charges against Scott Schollenberger and his live-in fiancée, Kimberly Marie Maurer, in September 2020. Both lived with Max and the other children in a home located in the first block of South White Oak Street in Annville Township.
“Claw marks appeared in the child victim’s sheets,” according to a news release from Lebanon County District Attorney’s office. “Max Schollenberger’s bedroom was entirely devoid of light and furniture, aside from the bed wherein he died. The bedroom’s windows contained shades and doors. The shades were taped to the window frames and the doors were screwed shut; the window coverings rendered the child unable to see in or out.”
In an autopsy in June, the child was found to have suffered starvation, malnutrition and multiple blunt force trauma throughout his head and body. He weighed 47.5 pounds when he died.
In court documents, detectives stated that Scott Schollenberger and Maurer had not taken the boy for doctor’s visits for over a decade and never enrolled him in school.
“The investigation also revealed that defendant Schollenberger expressed intense frustration towards the child victim and that he had indicated to other individuals that he was afraid of hurting him,” documents state.
Several other children who lived in the home — both from Maurer’s previous relationship and biological children from Schollenberger and Maurer — appeared to be well-adjusted and healthy, the district attorney’s office reported in 2020.
When interviewed, the other children in the home said the defendants refused to let the victim out of his room. One child specifically remembered the couple would enter the boy’s room, and he would scream and cry.
Maurer did not plead guilty Thursday, according to court documents. Her trial is still scheduled for March 14 before Judge Charles.
Both Maurer and Scott Schollenberger remain in custody at Lebanon County Prison.
The Department of Human Services operates a 24/7 hotline to report suspected child abuse or concerns about the welfare of a child. ChildLine can be reached at 800-932-0313.
Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at [email protected] or on Twitter at @DAMattToth.
Author: Amaury Abreu
