Boy was tortured by parents and found in crawl space after missing school, feds say
When a school resource officer visited the home of a 13-year-old student for a welfare check, he found the boy inside a crawl space, where he was hidden by his parents, according to federal prosecutors.
The boy had been tortured and starved by his stepfather and mother while the child was missing from school for more than a month, prosecutors said.
McClatchy News is not identifying the boy’s parents to protect his identity.
After the Arapahoe school officer located him, the boy was taken to an emergency room with a broken nose, bruises and cuts all over his face and body, and other injuries on Dec. 12, according to court documents.
During an interview, the boy said “he had a bad habit of stealing food … and none of this would have happened if he didn’t do that,” court documents say.
His stepfather and mother trapped the boy inside his room for weeks with a lock they placed on his door and screws to keep his window shut, an investigation revealed, according to a criminal complaint.
With no way to escape, he endured “weeks of physical beatings, isolation, starvation, and psychological abuse” from his parents, prosecutors said.
Mom is convicted
A federal jury found the 33-year-old mother, of Arapahoe, guilty on June 13 of aggravated child abuse, assault resulting in serious bodily injury and assault with a dangerous weapon, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming announced in a news release.
The verdict came on the fourth day of trial, according to prosecutors.
In April, the 36-year-old stepfather pleaded guilty to assault resulting in serious bodily injury, prosecutors said.
McClatchy News contacted attorneys separately representing the two for comment on June 14 and didn’t receive immediate responses.
‘Trapped like an animal’
Before the school resource officer found the boy on Dec. 12, his parents told him to hide in the crawl space, according to the criminal complaint.
The officer had previously visited the boy’s home multiple times to search for him but couldn’t locate him, the complaint says.
Upon the officer’s arrival on Dec. 12, the stepfather said the boy “was not there,” according to the complaint.
He “eventually relented” when the officer demanded to see the 13-year-old, the criminal complaint says.
Following the boy’s rescue, he said in an interview that he “felt trapped like an animal” when he was locked in his room with nothing to do and “lost track of time,” according to the complaint.
“At some point he heard his mom yell at him through the wall saying he had been in there for a month and wouldn’t he like to be out having fun with family,” the complaint says.
On multiple occasions, his stepfather put the boy in a chokehold, resulting in him passing out, and “hit him when (he) woke up,” the complaint says.
Then he’d repeat putting him in a chokehold and beating him after the boy woke up again, according to the complaint.
As this happened, the mother took care of the boy’s five half-siblings who are all younger than 9, the complaint says.
Both parents would hit the boy with their fists and with a stick from the closet, according to the complaint.
They occasionally gave him leftover food and beat him if they found wrappers or food in his room, according to the complaint.
If the stepfather found food, his mother would knee the boy “between the legs,” the complaint says.
In addition to a broken nose, the child has “a ruptured testicle, and healing lumbar fractures in his spine,” the complaint says.
Possible life sentence
The parents each face a minimum of 10 years in federal prison and up to life in prison, according to prosecutors.
They could also each be fined up to $250,000.
The stepfather is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 6, and the mother is to be sentenced on Aug. 29, prosecutors said.
Arapahoe is in central Wyoming, about a 130-mile drive northwest of Casper.
This story was originally published June 14, 2024 at 4:42 PM with the headline "Boy was tortured by parents and found in crawl space after missing school, feds say."
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