(Justice for Max Schollenberg & Case Discussion Facebook group)
Today, we have more details on the reason for the July arrest of 42-year-old Scott Schollenberger.
Scott and his girlfriend, 35-year-old Kimberly Maurer, were taken into custody on September 11, 2020 and charged in the death of Scott’s 12-year-old son, Maxwell Schollenberger. Max was found deceased in May in the family’s Annville, Pennsylvania home; the little boy was emaciated and covered in feces, which was also smeared and caked on every surface in the bedroom, which was locked from the outside with three metal hooks. There was no furniture in the room other than the bed on which Max died, and there was no light, either electric or natural, as the windows had been sealed with screws, the shades secured with duct tape.
It is possible that Max, who hadn’t seen a doctor in almost a decade and was never enrolled in school, was held captive in this horrific, inhumane manner for years.
Other children who lived in the home, including Kim’s two teenagers from a previous relationship and three young children born to the couple, appeared healthy, well nourished, and free from physical abuse. Max was Scott’s biological son but not Kim’s, although she had been his caregiver since he was around two years old.
(Pocono Record)
In my initial post about Max’s case, I reported that Scott was initially arrested on July 9 and charged with simple assault due to a rumored attack on his girlfriend, Kim. Yesterday, the Lebanon Daily News confirmed the rumor and provided more details about the incident.
On July 9, 2020, Annville police were called to the family’s home at 30 South White Oak Street on an assault report. According to township records, Kim told police that Scott hit her when he returned home at around 7:00 that morning after a night out. Scott was reportedly angry about something that happened with a friend, Kim said, and when she asked him if he had been out drinking all night, he hit her.
A police officer on the scene took note of swelling above Kim’s eye.
(Dan Gleiter / Penn Live Patriot-News)
Scott was charged with simple assault in that incident. A jury trial for that charge has been scheduled for November.
(Facebook)
Scott and Kim are due in court this week, scheduled for a preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge John W. Ditzler on Thursday, September 24 at 8:00 AM. They each face charges of criminal homicide, endangering the welfare of children, and conspiracy to commit both.
The newspaper also reported that one of Scott’s former coworkers, Michael Chalbowski, told them Scott had “a bit of an anger issue.” The men worked together for several years in the kitchen of Lebanon’s Ruby Tuesday restaurant. Chalbowski, who now lives in Illinois, told the reporter that he spent some time outside of work with Scott, but he found the man “weird” and said he had a foul mouth.
A memorial has sprung up in front of the house where Max died since the announcement of Scott and Kim’s arrests during a press conference by Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graf on September 14.
Click here for my ongoing coverage of Max’s case.
Sources: Lebanon Daily News
Hang them pos !!
Thank you for providing updates on Max Schollenberger’s devastating case. Are the dates correct though? Max was found deceased on May 26 and the arrest of his father on the domestic abuse incident was in July?
Hi, Kaitlyn! Thank you for reading! Max’s case is just heartbreaking. As for dates, that is correct. Scott and Kim weren’t arrested until September 11, and the domestic arrest happened in July, although he managed to bond out for that one.
Ok, but he was not upstairs suffering when the police arrived for that July call then because he had died already at that time, right? I only ask because I agree it would have been even more disturbing if that had been a missed opportunity to help him.
Can someone please tell me why father and mother were not arrested and held without bail the same day that Max was found dead.
Is there a president for this? Who did they think was responsible for Max’s death if not the parents/caretakers?
They were allowed free in the community from May 26 to mid September? I find this very strange. I live in Annville not far from where Max was brutally tortured and murdered. The father was arrested again on July 9th and let go.
Am I missing something?
Hi, Albert! The only reason I can think of that the parents weren’t arrested immediately is because investigators needed time to put together a case, and they might have feared that if they arrested Scott and Kim right away, they may not have cause to hold them before the autopsy results came back. They were indeed allowed free from May 26 to September 11, and Scott did make bail after his arrest on July 9. I’m just glad they’re behind bars at last, and I hope they stay there!
I wasn’t going to add a reply to this, but I have to after looking at Max’s picture.
I only want to say that I hope the other children of this family (Max’s siblings) have access to extensive counseling. I can only imagine the fear/terror they were made to live in every day. Maybe they weren’t physically abused by their parents, but they had to have known that something horrible was happening to a child in that locked room. Thinking about the thoughts and feelings they must have experienced when they heard Max screaming and crying breaks my heart and makes me sick to my stomach.
The parents are definitely severely mentally damaged individuals. Yet, they got that way somehow from somewhere. Maybe mental illness runs in their families or something traumatic happened to each parent at some point in their lives that completely destroyed their emotions, heart, and reasoning.
Either way, I hope the other children can get counseling or some kind of mental health assistance for whatever they may have experienced living there. I hope they can stop the violence in their family from continuing into the next generation.
And…may there be justice for Max. He will not be forgotten.
Jenny, I totally agree. The trauma those kids experienced, both the little ones and the teenagers who lived in that house at least part time, is unfathomable. A lot of people in the Facebook groups want to lay blame on the teenagers for not telling anyone about what was going on, but those kids had to have been either brainwashed to believe Max deserved his treatment or terrified to tell a soul (or both). It happens all too often in families like this. I hope they can overcome the trauma and avoid becoming like their parents.
I don’t understand how people allow others to mistreat their flesh and blood. The cruelty that baby went through…. So heartbreaking.