Abused teen hides branding scar at Vista Maria
Tasia Keaton wears an oversized watch to hide the scar on her wrist.
A 17-year-old runaway from the Vista Maria campus for vulnerable girls in Dearborn Heights, Keaton was branded with a heated-up ballpoint pen by a staff member.
“He (Jaylen) would write his initial on her,” Trisha Wade, her aunt, said on the latest edition of the “More Than Just Luck” podcast hosted by author and businessman Greg Wier.
“I said, ‘What do you mean? With a marker, or sharpie, what?’ She said he would heat up a ballpoint pen. I said, ‘Honey, that’s branding. He branded you. It’s what they do to cattle.”
Trisha said Jaylen would buy lingerie for Tasia, “make her wear it under her robe,” and “pretty much do whatever he wanted with her in the laundry-room area.”
Watch Voices Unmuted Podcast Series
“She said she did what she had to do,” Trisha said.
“Did she get rewarded if she cooperated?” Wier asked.
“With chips and stuff,” she said.
Tasia Keaton was at Vista Maria for a year and is now on the run. If you have any information on her whereabouts, please contact us at http://www.mtjlpodcast.com.
Wier also talked to Vista survivor Janine on this week’s “Muted Voices,” an investigative look into physical and sexual abuse, unsafe conditions, overmedication and negligence at the all-girls facility.
A civil lawsuit filed in Wayne County Circuit Court in April, 2026, named six plaintiffs who say they were abused as minors. More than 100 former residents have come forward this year.
When asked if jail or Vista Maria was better, Janine left no doubt.
“Jail,” Janine said. “Way more peaceful.”
At the end of the podcast, Wier, whose memoir “More Than Just Luck” chronicles his no-holds-barred saga of ambition, betrayal and triumph, praised Janine for supporting the other girls who have shared their stories.
“I said in the beginning of this, you’re an advocate,” Wier said. “You have nothing to gain and you may or may not be entitled to anything at the end of this. I don’t think you care, as long as the girls aren’t being taken advantage of again.”
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