7 days ago
Pittsburgh-area man and girlfriend accused of abusing 5-year-old boy, locking him in basement
A man and his girlfriend are charged with what Monessen police are calling a disturbing case of child abuse.
Katherine Secleter wishes she could have stopped what led police to her street on Monday morning. Her neighbors, 35-year-old Colleen Cassidy and 29-year-old Charles Smitley V, were taken into custody.
"They seemed polite. They were a little standoffish, but like new people usually are," Secleter said.
However, she and others told KDKA they never even knew children were living with them at their home, which they moved into in the fall.
"What a life that they're living, a trauma, a nightmare," Secleter said.
Monessen Police Lt. Aaron Thompson said the department was first alerted in April by Pennsylvania State Police troopers in Uniontown after Smitley's father brought his 5-year-old grandson to the hospital for bruising.
Court records said he recently gained custody from Smitley, who said "he no longer [wanted] to care for the child." From October until that time, the child had been living with Smitley, Cassidy and Cassidy's 11-year-old son.
When the grandfather took the child in, the child was dirty and "had a foul odor," according to court documents. On a trip to McDonald's, the boy was only interested in eating, "complained about his stomach hurting and was observed to be walking in pain," court records said.
After washing him in a bathtub, his grandfather allegedly found several bruises on the boy's legs and butt.
"They saw the extent of the injuries, and that's when they immediately took him to Uniontown Hospital," Thompson said.
Officials said the child was then transported to West Virginia University Ruby Memorial Hospital, where a nurse shared with police that the child "appeared to be emaciated." They also said the child told them Cassidy and his dad "had spanked him with a white paddle… every day" and that they made him eat his own waste.
"He revealed that he was forced to eat feces, that he was not being fed properly, that he had been tied down in a chair previously by his father's girlfriend," Thompson said.
Investigators describe that the boy said the two of them would lock him in the basement bathroom to sleep "with no blankets or padding," and Cassidy's 11-year-old told police he found the child "in a closet with his hands taped together with duct tape." The 11-year-old said he was never hurt.
Thompson said since the children were removed from the home, they're doing well.
"My heart celebrates that bad people are off the street, but it aches for those kids," Secleter said.
Cassidy and Smitley remain in Westmoreland County Jail on $100,000 and $250,000 bail, respectively. Their preliminary hearings are set for Aug. 22.
