Paul Foltz

YOUNGSTOWN — Paul Foltz of Austintown wants everyone to know that he is glad his daughter, Shain Widdersheim, was denied early release from prison this month for failing to protect her three sons from her then-boyfriend, Zaryl Bush, before Bush killed one of the boys, Teddy Foltz, 14, in 2013.

“My biggest objective is for people to know the truth about her,” Paul Foltz said of his desire to have a story published about her attempt to be released early. Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court denied the request.

“All she did was tell lie after lie and try to cover this whole thing up,” he said recently of the abuse of her sons. “She does not deserve to be out of prison.”

Krichbaum sentenced Widdersheim to 15 years in prison in 2013 after Widdersheim was convicted of four counts of child endangering and one count of obstructing justice.

Bush, now 55, was sentenced to 33-years-to-life in prison for fatally beating Teddy, subjecting Teddy’s twin brothers to abuse and trying to get the brothers to cover up the crime.

The relationship between Widdersheim, 44, and her parents was chronicled in The Vindicator in 2014, when Widdersheim said her relationship with her parents was “bad” at the time Bush was abusing the boys, so she couldn’t turn to them for help. Her parents said in a separate story that she had pushed them away.

Prosecutors and police said Widdersheim kept family and others from seeing Teddy and his brothers, then 11, and Bush abused all three for a significant period of time, including forcing the twins to beat Foltz, as well as beating all three himself.

“I am appalled at the things those kids went through, and I had no idea until they were in jail,” he said of Zaryl Bush and his daughter.

Widdersheim, who is housed in the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, has an expected release date of Aug. 22, 2027.

Krichbaum’s ruling stated that he “then considered and now considers that (Widdersheim) allowed consistent abuse and torture to be visited upon her son, Teddy Foltz, and his brothers for a lengthy period of time during her relationship with” Bush.

“The victim was habitually abused, beaten and tortured and threatened by Zaryl Bush,” the judge wrote.

“On the night Teddy Foltz was so severely beaten by Bush that the injuries led to his death, Ms. (Widdersheim) was with Bush when they found the runaway Teddy Foltz, and when they secured him in their car, Bush told the victim, ‘You’re mine tonight,'” the ruling states.

“When they returned to Bush’s residence, Ms. (Widdersheim), instead of staying to protect her son and knowing what was going to happen to the child, left him with Bush while she went out to purchase lottery tickets.

“When she returned, the vicious beating of Teddy Foltz had already occurred, and Bush and (Widdersheim) moved the victim to (Widdersheim’s) residence and attempted to cover up the beating by claiming that the victim had fallen in the shower,” the ruling states.

In a 2014 Vindicator interview, Widdersheim said she did not report her knowledge of Bush’s violent and abusive behavior to authorities because she feared Bush. She said she also had “no family, no friends to support me” and did not know about “homeless shelters and different organizations that could have helped me.”

But in a separate 2014 interview, Paul Foltz’s ex-wife Sara, said Widdersheim chose Bush over her family. And Sara Foltz brought a certified letter from April Williams, a longtime friend of Widdersheim, stating that Williams had worked at a local domestic violence / rape crisis shelter as shelter manager and had “countless conversations” with Widdersheim prior to Teddy’s death about things to watch for and how to determine if you are in an abusive relationship.

In a recent interview, Paul Foltz said he wants to continue to speak out against his daughter “because the way I was born and raised, a parent would go to their death to protect their children, not allow somebody to be beat to death, as she did, let her boyfriend beat that child to death for no reason.”

Widdersheim was 13 years old when Paul and Sara Foltz divorced, but Paul Foltz had visitation rights to Widdersheim and her two siblings. They came to his house three out of four weekends per month. The rest of the time they lived with their mother.

“But Shain did not like coming to my house because there were rules you had to follow. I’m not going to sit there and allow children to be disrespectful to anybody, especially my children. And she got to where she would just throw fits not wanting to come to my house for this reason or that reason and just making everyone’s life miserable around her,” he said.

“She didn’t want to be there because she didn’t want to follow rules,” he said. “She knew how to work the people and get what she wanted. There basically were no rules that were enforced with her mother.”

At the point where Widdersheim started dating Zaryl Bush, Widdersheim “would disappear. You couldn’t even find her. And when you did, she would always tell me ‘When you’re in Struthers, why don’t you stop and see us?’ And every time I would call her that I was going to be in Struthers (she would say) ‘This is a bad day, we are going to do this or I already have plans.’ There was always an excuse why I couldn’t come and see her and the kids.” Paul Foltz was talking about a time period about a year before Teddy died.

Paul Foltz said when he did get to visit Widdersheim’s boys, Widdersheim “stood right there the whole time.” The boys “were never allowed to be left alone with me or anybody else.” He thinks that was to keep the issues with Zaryl Bush secret. Widdersheim would also stand by to monitor what the kids said to him or anyone else on the phone, he said. “She was enabling this man to abuse her children,” he said.

“She was more interested in running around with (Bush) than she was in taking care of her children,” Paul Foltz said. “At that point in time, I feel like the kids were more of a burden to her than anything else.”

Paul Foltz said he wishes his daughter would have gotten more than 15 years in prison, though Judge Krichbaum went beyond the recommended sentence from prosecutors of 10 years.

This was the third time Widdersheim asked for early release. Krichbaum did not act on her August 2023 request, effectively denying it. The judge denied Widdersheim’s first request for early release Jan. 24, 2022.

Have an interesting story? Contact Ed Runyan by email at erunyan@vindy.com. Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, @TribToday.