Denial of daughter's early release pleases her father in Teddy Foltz case | News, Sports, Jobs

Paul Foltz

YOUNGSTOWN – Paul Foltz of Austintown wants everyone to know 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, 14-year-old Teddy Foltz, in 2013.

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

“All she's done is tell lie after lie and try to cover the whole thing up,” he said recently about the abuse of her sons. “She doesn't deserve to be released from prison.”

Krichbaum sentenced Widdersheim to 15 years in prison in 2013 after Widdersheim was found guilty of four counts of endangering a child and one count of obstruction of justice.

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

The relationship between Widdersheim, 44, and her parents was documented in The Vindicator in 2014. Widdersheim said at the time that her relationship with her parents was “bad” when Bush abused the boys, so she couldn't turn to them for help. Her parents said in another story that she pushed them away.

Prosecutors and police said Widdersheim denied his family and others access to Teddy and his then 11-year-old brothers, and that Bush abused all three over a long period of time. He forced the twins to hit Foltz, among other things, and beat all three himself.

“I am horrified by what these children had to go through. I had no idea about it until they were in prison,” he said of Zaryl Bush and his daughter.

Widdersheim, who is housed at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, is scheduled to be released on August 22, 2027.

Krichbaum's ruling states that he “believed then and continues to believe today that (Widdersheim) permitted ongoing abuse and torture of her son, Teddy Foltz, and his brothers over a long period of time during her relationship with Bush.”

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

“On the night Teddy Foltz was beaten by Bush so severely that the injuries resulted in his death, Mrs. (Widdersheim) was with Bush when they found the runaway Teddy Foltz, and as they secured him in their car, Bush told the victim, 'Tonight you are mine,'” the ruling states.

“When they returned to Bush's residence, Mrs. (Widdersheim) left him with Bush instead of staying to protect her son and despite knowing what would happen to the child, while she went out to buy lottery tickets.

“When she returned, Teddy Foltz had already been brutally beaten, and Bush and (Widdersheim) took the victim to (Widdersheim's) apartment and attempted to cover up the beating by claiming the victim had fallen in the shower,” the ruling states.

In a 2014 interview with Vindicator, Widdersheim said she did not report her knowledge of Bush's violent and abusive behavior to authorities because she was afraid of Bush. She also said she had “no family, no friends who could support me” and was unaware of “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 registered letter from April Williams, a longtime friend of Widdersheim's, in which she said Williams worked as the director of a local shelter for victims of domestic violence and rape and had “countless conversations” with Widdersheim before Teddy's death about what to look for and how to tell if you're in an abusive relationship.

In a recent interview, Paul Foltz said he would continue to speak out against his daughter, “because the way I was born and raised, parents would die to protect their children and not allow someone to be beaten to death like she did when she allowed her boyfriend to beat her child to death for no reason.”

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

“But Shain didn't like coming to my house because there were rules that had to be followed. I'm not going to sit there and allow children to be disrespectful to anyone, especially my children. And she would throw tantrums because she didn't want to come to my house for this reason or that and make life difficult for everyone 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 deal with people and get what she wanted. With her mother, there were basically no rules enforced.”

When Widdersheim began dating Zaryl Bush, “Widdersheim disappeared. You couldn't even find her. And when you did find her, she would always say to me, 'If you're in Struthers, why don't you stop by?' And every time I called her to say I was going to be in Struthers, she would say, 'Today is a bad day, we'll do it or I already have plans.' There was always an excuse why I couldn't visit her and the kids.” Paul Foltz spoke about a period about a year before Teddy's death.

Paul Foltz said when he visited Widdersheim's sons, “Widdersheim stood there the whole time.” The boys “were never allowed to be left alone with me or anyone else.” He believes that was done to keep the problems with Zaryl Bush secret. Widdersheim also stood by to monitor what the children said to him or anyone else on the phone, he said. “She enabled this man to abuse her children,” he said.

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

Paul Foltz said he wished his daughter had received more than 15 years in prison, even though Judge Krichbaum went beyond the 10-year sentence recommended by prosecutors.

This was the third time Widdersheim had asked for early release. Krichbaum did not grant her request in August 2023, effectively denying it. The judge denied Widdersheim's first request for early release on January 24, 2022.

Do you have an interesting story? Contact Ed Runyan by email at [email protected]. Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, @TribToday.