Suit: Michigan home for troubled girls a 'house of horrors,' rife with abuse

Six women and girls are suing Vista Maria, a metro Detroit girls home, alleging a pattern of abuse and neglect spanning decades
Vista Maria closed its program for at-risk girls in late 2025. Officials blamed overzealous state regulations
Roughly 55 women and girls came forward in February, alleging mistreatment at the hands of staff during their time at Vista Maria

LANSING — Former residents of a Michigan home for at-risk girls say they suffered serious psychological, physical and sexual abuse in the residential treatment program, which closed in December.

In a lawsuit filed Monday in Wayne County’s Third Circuit Court, six women and girls allege that Vista Maria’s program in metro Detroit amounted to a “house of horrors” that enabled staff to molest, assault and even starve girls as young as 12 in their care.

The plaintiffs, now ages 16 to 40, are seeking unspecified monetary damages and any other “legal or equitable relief” the court deems appropriate.

Attorneys are alleging five counts against the organization, including negligence, assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent hiring, retention or supervision efforts.

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Founded in 1883 as a safe haven for women and girls, Vista Maria opened a residential treatment program on its Dearborn Heights campus in 1976.

At one point, the program served as many as 150 girls in metro Detroit but was forced to close in December 2025 after state officials stopped referring girls to Vista Maria earlier that same year.

Vista Maria’s residential treatment program is among a growing number of similar programs for at-risk youth that have closed across Michigan in recent years.

As documented in a recent Bridge Michigan investigation, that’s resulted in an increased number of minors being sent out-of-state for youth mental health care. There are fewer than 400 beds available in youth residential treatment facilities in Michigan, down from about 1,200 since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Each of the plaintiffs suing Vista Maria were placed there by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services while minors, the suit claims. Several now say they’ve “suffered and continue to suffer” psychological distress, degradation, pain and suffering as a result of their experiences.

Attorney Ayanna Neal, who in February announced the group’s intent to sue, said in a statement that the “claims laid out by each survivor were hard to believe at first” but that the more women came out about their alleged mistreatment, the more “their stories were too similar to be made up.”

“The survivors were sent there to be safe, instead they were taken advantage of,” Neal said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “That is why we are seeking nothing short of complete and total justice.”

Vista Maria has been formally notified of the lawsuit and is reviewing the allegations, a spokesperson told Bridge in a statement.

“We take matters involving the safety and well-being of youth very seriously, and we will address these claims through the legal process,” the statement continued.

“Because of privacy and confidentiality laws, we cannot comment on specific individuals or circumstances. We remain fully committed to transparency within the bounds of the law, cooperation with appropriate authorities, and continued support for the youth and families we serve.”

Vista Maria officials previously said they closed their residential youth treatment program due to new state rules on seclusion and restraint, high rates of staff turnover and challenges associated with taking on youth with higher acuity needs.

The allegations

Of the six individuals named in the new lawsuit, many allege similar experiences — including being forced to strip naked while left in a “behavioral management room” and observed by male staff members and left in full view of security cameras.

Sophia Knoblauch, now 18, alleged staff repeatedly made “inappropriate, abusive and degrading comments” to her when she lived at Vista Maria from 2020 to 2025 after placement there as a 12-year old.

At one point, staff dumped a “chemical cleaning agent” onto her head while restraining her, and on several occasions denied her an inhaler during asthmatic episodes, according to the lawsuit.

Now 21-year-old plaintiff Rebecca Andrzejewski also alleged being denied bathroom access as a form of punishment “sometimes for hours on end,” resulting in her “urinating herself or on her belongings to avoid urine accumulation on the floor of her room.”

Andrzejewski was placed in Vista Maria’s care in 2020 as a 16-year-old foster youth. She remained at the facility through 2022.

In another instance, now 40-year-old plaintiff Ashley Bell alleged a female staff member would take her and other girls from their rooms at Vista Maria and supply them with cigarettes and alcohol then “encourage, coerce and manipulate” them “into performing sex acts on one another while the staff member watched.”

Bell was placed at Vista Maria on the recommendation of her probation officer at the time and lived at the facility between 1999 and 2000. Attorneys say Bell only recently remembered what she’d experienced at Vista Maria due to ongoing therapy sessions.

“This is not just about what happened to a few individuals, this is about a system that failed the vulnerable young women it was entrusted to protect,” attorney Moose Scheib, who’s also representing the group in the suit, said in a statement.

“When dozens of survivors come forward with the same experiences, it shows a pattern of systemic abuse and cover-up. This lawsuit is the beginning of holding the system accountable.”

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