The infamous and controversial Whittaker family live in a decaying home in Odd, West Virginia, with congealed food drawing flies and a gas leak from the stove
Down a bumpy dirt path in Odd, West Virginia, beyond dilapidated fences and dense tree lines, lies the Whittaker estate. It’s a place so stuck in time it feels deserted, even though two family members continue to reside within.
Visitors are greeted by what appears less like a home and more like a decades-long decay. Journalists who recently revisited the site discovered a collection of leaning shacks, rusted rubbish, and a main house that seems to sag under its own weight.
On the porch, Halloween skeletons hang next to Christmas angels, surrounded by old tyres, squashed cans and shattered buckets. But it’s the interior where the scene becomes truly unsettling.
Outside the window, a crumbling chicken coop and several battered trailers bear the scars of years of weathering. Beyond them stands the outhouse that the Whittakers have used for generations, according to the Mirror US.
This is what’s left of the home long inhabited by the Whittakers — a family widely recognised as America’s most inbred. Once echoing with seven or eight people’s voices, the house now shelters Betty, 73, and Larry, 69.
Their lives have become quieter after government intervention resulted in their relatives being taken away, or so they claim, without any explanation. In September, three family members — Ray, 72, his sister Lorene, 79, and Lorene’s son Timmy, 46 — were removed from the property by adult protective services.
Betty recalls being told only that the trio “couldn’t live here no more”, and she misses them greatly, having essentially raised them herself. Larry says he has heard nothing since the day they were taken away.
He suspects the sudden intervention occurred after online videos of the family became viral, adding: “People out there making money off them [the videos], and they don’t like it. They told us don’t talk to nobody.
“They watching.” Officials with West Virginia’s Department of Human Services said they were “aware of the situation”, but could not comment “due to confidentiality laws”, declining to provide further details due to “the ongoing nature of the matter”.
For Betty and Larry, who have spent their entire lives in almost complete isolation, the dramatic transformation from anonymity to global attention to enforced family separation has been utterly heartbreaking. The Whittakers’ complex family tree spans more than a century, beginning with a union between two sets of cousins who descended from identical twin brothers.
Their parents were “first cousins, twice, because they share both sets of grandparents”. Experts have long cautioned about the ramifications of such family relationships, with a 2021 study from the University of San Francisco Valley in Brazil observing that: “There is an association between high rates of marriage between relatives and the development of congenital malformations, abortions, deafness, esophageal atresia, and mental and physical disabilities.”
The family’s long-concealed existence exploded onto the world stage in 2020 when filmmaker Mark Laita posted a 12-minute documentary on his YouTube channel Soft White Underbelly. The clip stunned audiences and rapidly became viral.
The YouTube clips racked up tens of millions of views. Before long, sightseers started travelling down the family’s dirt road to gawp, film, or take photographs.
For a clan that previously concealed themselves from outsiders, their veranda had transformed into a tourist attraction. Online responses have swayed dramatically between fury and compassion.
One commenter posted, “This is a total invasion of this family’s privacy.” Another expressed relief: “I’m just glad that Ray, Lorene, and Timmy are in a clean environment now, with healthy meals to eat and the ability to take showers and stay clean.”
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