A family which has been dubbed the 'most inbred' in the US has had a heartbreaking update after shooting to viral fame.
The Whittaker family live in rural West Virginia, and became the subject of a documentary on YouTube about the family's gene pool.
Inbreeding in the family goes back around a century, and can traced to one marriage between two sets of cousins who themselves were descended from identical twin brothers.
This one marriage concentrated the family's gene pool, with many of them living with disabilities.
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The family came to the public's attention following a documentary series on the Soft White Underbelly YouTube channel, which was published by Mark Laita and racked up millions of views. Laita had been documenting the lives of the family for since first meeting them in 2004, publishing the documentary in 2020.
But the viral fame has had sad and unintended consequences for the Whittaker family.
The intense public attention has seen state authorities intervene.
In September, adult protective services in West Virginia took Ray Whittaker, 72; his sister Lorene, 79; and her son Timmy, 46, from the family home in the town Odd, according to family members who spoke to the Daily Mail.
Ray and Lorene's sister Betty, 73, and brother Larry, 69, were unexpectedly left behind at the home with no explanation.
Betty said: “They said they were helping them, and they couldn’t live here no more. I miss them a lot, I raised them.”
Larry added that they have not been told where their relatives are.
He said: “I’ve been staying at home, waiting on a phone call, but that’s all I know. They haven’t called or let me know nothing.
“They won’t tell us where they at.”
Officials from West Virginia’s Department of Human Services have said they are 'aware of the situation' but did not discuss the case due to confidentiality regulation.
The family's fame drew in people who turned up at their home around 75 miles from Charleston to try and take pictures and video.
Larry said he thought that the fame may have been a factor in the protective services' decision to intervene.
“People out there making money off them [the videos], and they don’t like it,” he said, adding: “They told us don’t talk to nobody. They watching.”
It comes after Laita he was 'done' with the family after discovering the alleged faked the death of Larry Whittaker.
A clip shows Larry sitting outside his home talking about his own allegedly faked death, saying: "No, I just heard of it last night on a video.”
Laita said he had given Larry's daughter BJ money to help cover funeral expenses, with BJ later confessing to the deception and apologising.
Topics: News, US News, YouTube, Social Media
Kit Roberts