Police on Thursday arrested an Eagle Mountain couple who allegedly locked their 5-year-old son in a dark basement room with no bathroom overnight.
With no access to a toilet, the boy hid his waste in a hole in a wall “so he would not get in trouble,” according to a news release from the Utah County Sheriff‘s Office.
Witnesses reported the alleged abuse earlier this year, and police investigated for several months before arresting the couple Thursday. The couple — who have been booked into jail and have had bail set at $10,000 — adopted the boy and his 2-year-old brother. The couple also has a 2-month-old girl. The Utah Division of Child and Family Services took custody of the three children in June, and has allowed the victim of the abuse — who turned 6 in June — to stay with a grandmother.
Although the boy had a bedroom, the couple allegedly locked him in the “pitch black” basement room nightly, from about 6 or 7 p.m. to 6 a.m., for “several months at least,” Cannon said.
The boy also was required to eat carrots before every meal, and if he did not finish them in a certain time period, he was not allowed to eat the rest of his food, according to the Sheriff’s Office. He was disciplined for eating samples at a grocery store because he had not eaten carrots before the food, the release stated.
The younger two children were not treated the same way as their brother, Cannon said.
“They were treated better. They did not have the restrictions, they had a regular bedroom with toys and a sippy cup with water and those kinds of things,” Cannon said. “It was primarily the older boy who was treated this way. But he seems to be doing pretty well now.”
As of Thursday night, the couple had not been charged, according to the Sheriff’s Office, but they may face a charge of second-degree felony child abuse.