An Illinois couple is facing a series of abuse charges after their 11-year-old son fled to a nearby business seeking help.
According to investigators, Priscilla Marshall, 34, and Cody Marion, 35, subjected the boy to years of abuse. The allegations include assaults with household items, forcing dish soap into his mouth and ears, and preventing him from attending school, as reported by WGN.
The Fox Lake Police Department initiated an investigation last Friday night after the boy was discovered wearing only underwear, showing signs of physical abuse.
An employee at a local business alerted authorities after noticing the boy’s face was bloodied, and his body showed welts, abrasions, and scratches. Authorities then placed him in protective custody and transported him to a hospital for further evaluation.
After speaking with the boy and subsequently his mother, police proceeded to arrest her.
At the home, police found two other children, aged 1 and 2, who seemed unharmed. Two additional children were reportedly attending school at the time. All four children were taken into protective custody before being temporarily placed with a family member.
After investigators interviewed the children, they went back to the home and arrested Marion.
Court filings say Marshall repeatedly punched the boy, hit him with extension cords, and threatened to stab him, WBBM reported. Marion, his stepfather, told him he deserved it.
The boy told investigators that he woke up Friday morning as Marshall was throwing things around the house while Marion did dishes. Marshall was angry, he said, and began pushing and punching him and telling him nobody loves him. The two younger children, both girls, were on the couch crying, asking her to stop.
The boy said he later coughed up blood and then ran out of the house in his underwear. As he ran, Marshall grabbed a knife and held it to her throat.
The boy was treated at Northwestern McHenry Hospital, where doctors found multiple bruises all over his body, dried blood in his nose and mouth, welts all over, and soapy substances on his face and chest.
The boy told investigators that the abuse began in 2023 when his mother smacked him across the face. He went to school and was asked about the mark, but he didn’t respond because Marshall told him to lie.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office said the incident was investigated at the time, but the boy did not disclose abuse and the matter was dropped.
He told police that neither of his sister or two brothers were beaten. He said his mother pulled him out of school before 5th grade, although the other boys were allowed to continue.
He said that Marion repeated told him to “just take” the abuse. He said Marshall told him his brothers were her favorites and that he was “just the adopted child” who “desves to die and one day she will dump his body,” the court papers said.
Marshall also forced him to write “you’re not a loved child, everybody hates you” in a notebook as punishment. She also had his older brother choke him, punch him, and slam him onto the floor, prosecutors wrote.
Once, he said, she threw a pair of scissors at him.
He further said he had to sit in a hallway to eat, away from the rest of the family, who ate food from restaurants while he always ate canned food.
Marshall and Marion made their first court appearance on Saturday. Marion returned to court on Monday, when a judge granted prosecutors request to detain him until trial.
His attorneys blamed Marshall for the abuse, while Marion cried. The judge, however, said that Marion knew about the abuse and did nothing to stop it.
Marshall has a detention hearing on Tuesday.
