UNION COUNTY—The former Union County DSS worker who pleaded guilty to felony child abuse last week is now a free woman.
Wanda Sue Larson was released from the jail just after noon Wednesday. Many are still outraged at the lenient sentence the judge handed down...
After her release from jail, Larson spent close to three hours here with her parole officer talking about the conditions of her release.
Unable to hold back tears, not willing to show her face, the biological mother of the child at the center of the case waits for the chance to confront Larson.
“If he was so bad, which he's not. We didn't see any of that. If he was so, so bad why not give him back to me?,” said Maria, the victim's biological mother.
In 2013, Larson and her boyfriend, Dorian Harper, were arrested after authorities found an 11-year-old boy chained to a porch with a dead chicken around his neck. Larson was the boy’s guardian at the time of the incident.
Larson was sentenced to six to 17 months in jail after pleading guilty to child abuse. She is getting credit for time already served, which at the time of her sentencing was 507 days.
She will be on probation for the next five and a half years. Dorian Harper will spend the next six to 10 years in prison.
It's unclear where Larson will go. Her home is still in foreclosure and in an unlivable state—covered in trash, graffiti, and exposed wires.
Maria says her her son Michael and all the other children living in Larson's home are doing much better, but still have a lot of emotions to work through. She hopes to regain custody of Michael from Davidson County DSS this June.