21-Year-Old Disabled Son Allegedly Beaten, Caged, Sprayed With Chemicals By Parents

The mother and stepfather of a 21-year-old man with a genetic disability were arrested in Parkersburg, West Virginia, on Tuesday for beating, binding and caging him. The disability prevents the boy from speaking.

Christina Boyles, 40, and Herbert Boyles, 39, were charged with abuse and neglect of an incapacitated adult.

Officers investigating the abuse, found their son malnourished with wounds and sores on all parts of his body and cysts on his pelvic area, a Parkersburg Police Department release said, adding the cysts could possibly be from lying on a hard surface, the Associated Press reported.

The victim's elder brother told officials he was deprived of food, bound, caged, and sprayed all over his body with chemicals, the criminal complaint said.

In an unrelated incident in June, two foster parents were arrested on charges of child abuse in Arizona after an investigation found children were kept in separate bedrooms locked from the outside.

Investigators found four children at their residence aged between 6 and 12 who did not have access to food, water, or a bathroom for up to twelve hours at a time on a regular basis.

Officials responded to a call from a shop employee about a suspicious activity involving a child. This led the police to the home after it was found that one of the children had escaped through a bedroom window. Though the house was in a decent condition, one bedroom had a bucket that was used as a toilet. Police officials immediately removed all the children from the home.

The bond was set for Benito Gutierrez, 69, and Carol Gutierrez, 64, at $25,000 each.

Similarly in another unrelated incident in March, a mother and her boyfriend were arrested for abusing her 4-year-old girl to death in Ohio.

Euclid police and paramedics reached the apartment after receiving a call that a child was unresponsive. The child was rushed to the hospital and was later pronounced dead. The manner of death was confirmed as homicide by the medical examiner's office.

Mickhal Garrett, the girl’s father said he was petitioning for her custody and tried to warn authorities that the child was being abused.

"I did everything in my power to let them know you know that I was a stand up dad and that my daughter was being harmed and abused at home and this was an emergency,” he said, adding that he was petitioning for emergency custody at the time of her death, Fox 8 reported.

The two were charged with aggravated murder and held on a $1 million bond each.

More than 3 million reports of child abuse are made in the United States every year. According to a report on Pilot Online, the annual report of the Eastern Region Child Fatality Review Team showed 16 abuse and neglect deaths between July 2016 and June 2017 in Virginia and since 2011, the number has ranged from 10 to 17 every year.