Adoptive parents force teen to sleep in camper, use grocery bag as bathroom, cops say
Adoptive parents forced their 13-year-old son to sleep in a camper without electricity, sometimes during the frigid winter months, as a form of punishment, Indiana deputies said.
The camper wasn’t equipped with a bathroom either, the teen told La Porte County deputies, so he had to use a grocery bag as a bathroom. He had been sent to live in the camper multiple times, once for up to 10 days, deputies said.
His adoptive parents hit and bruised him with a belt or paddle, forced him to spend hours outside digging holes and made him eat oatmeal with vinegar, according to court documents.
The parents’ forms of punishments, including sleeping in the camper, came to light when they were arrested on July 30 and accused of neglecting the teen because they would not pick him up from the hospital, deputies said.
McClatchy News is not naming the parents to protect the identity of the child.
The boy’s father denied hitting him and his mother did not mention it to police, according to court documents. They were each charged with two counts of neglecting a dependent.
The parents’ attorney could not be reached for comment.
On July 6, the boy’s adoptive parents took him to the hospital because his mental health had “deteriorated,” according to court documents, saying he had exhibited “aggressive” behaviors.
During his hospital stay, the boy had been diagnosed with Prader-Willi Syndrome, “a genetic disorder causing obesity, intellectual disability, and shortness in height. The most common symptoms are behavior problems, intellectual disability, and short stature,” according to court documents. “Hormonal symptoms include delayed puberty and constant hunger.”
He was also diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, his mother told deputies. Previously, the parents knew the boy had been exposed to cocaine before he was born, according to court documents.
He was discharged six days later, on July 12, but his parents refused to pick him up from the hospital, according to court documents.
There were two other children in the home, ages 6 and 10, deputies said, and the parents said they did not want the teen around them for safety reasons.
They told a social worker that they did not enroll the teen in therapy or get help to manage his medication at any point, court documents said. They did not believe “there would ever be a time he could be welcome(d) back” because of the teen’s alleged violent behavior, according to deputies.
A hospital staff member said the teen did not exhibit any violent behaviors during his several-day stay, according to the criminal complaint.
The parents said they wanted to terminate their parental rights rather than take the teen home, according to court documents.
“There’s nothing you can do about it,” the mother told deputies. They said they had made plans for their other two children if they were arrested.
Both parents are scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 4.
