Parents cage non-biological son, treat adoptive kids like ‘workers,' FL cops say
Two parents, ages 41 and 47, are facing aggravated child cruelty charges, along with their 19-year-old daughter and 21-year-old son, in connection with allegations of abuse against the family's four adoptive and foster kids, according to Columbia County jail records.
McClatchy News is not identifying the family to protect the identity of their kids.
The Florida Department of Children and Families was tipped off when one child brought a Taser to a church camp, according to a warrant affidavit filed July 22.
A woman told DCF investigators that she believed the couple's non-biological children were being abused, reporting none of them had an education or knew basic information like their own last names, deputies said.
She believed the non-biological children were treated like workers, 'not family members,' she told investigators.
When DCF workers visited the home where the children lived, the parents initially refused to let them inside or speak to the kids before relenting and letting them into the living room, deputies said. There were nine children at the home, according to investigators, five of which were the biological children of the parents.
'Observations included biological children watching television or playing, while non-biological children were engaged in chores,' investigators wrote in the report.
When investigators interviewed the kids ranging in age from 7 to 15, they said their 14-year-old brother was locked up in a makeshift cage under a bunk bed every night, and the family would seal him in by drilling a piece of plywood over the entrance, deputies said.
He would bang on the plywood to be let out but sometimes would be forced to stay there overnight even when he had to use the bathroom, according to investigators.
During his interview, he recounted his mother would sometimes press the plywood into his chest and back as a punishment, then he lifted his shirt and showed investigators his scars, the affidavit says.
Two kids also told investigators their parents sprayed vinegar in their eyes as punishment, deputies said.
One of the couple's former foster children told investigators the couple treated their non-biological kids differently, according to the affidavit. She said if there wasn't enough food, the non-biological kids wouldn't get any, deputies said.
A 15-year-old girl also said the couple didn't let the foster and adoptive kids have cell phones like their biological kids, investigators said. The teen 'explained that she's asked for a phone but her mother said she has to learn to read before she can get a phone,' according to the affidavit.
The teens appeared to be illiterate, according to deputies.
Investigators said they found the parents and two of their adult children all participated in the pattern of abuse.
Columbia County is in north Florida, bordering Georgia, and is a roughly 60-mile drive west from Jacksonville.
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