Background: Roh Ranch Lane in Callaway, Md. (Google Maps). Insets, from left: Kaylynn Nicole Moore and James Earl Stone (St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office).
A Maryland mother and her boyfriend are accused of making a 4-year-old child spend part of each day locked in a dark closet without food, authorities said.
Kaylynn Nicole Moore, 28, and James Earl Stone, 27, were charged with child abuse and seven counts of child neglect, the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office announced on Tuesday. Both defendants were taken to the St. Mary’s County Detention and Rehabilitation Center in Leonardtown, Maryland, where they were awaiting bond hearings.
Deputies responded Monday to a residence in the 2000 block of Roh Ranch Lane in Callaway, a coastal community about 70 miles south of Washington, D.C. According to the sheriff’s office, a caller reported that “a child was being held in a closet.”
Investigators said deputies were “given consent” to enter the home. Once inside, they found a closet door that had been “secured by a bungee cord,” with the 4-year-old child inside.
Authorities evaluated the child’s medical condition and determined that three adults and four other children were also living in the home. The sheriff’s office said the other children “did not require medical attention.”
After obtaining and executing a search warrant, deputies said they found the closet where the child had allegedly been kept “in deplorable condition.” The space had no working light, and investigators said they did not see any edible food inside.
Moore allegedly told investigators that her child was “left in the closet daily for approximately 12 hours.” Stone, identified by authorities as Moore’s boyfriend and a resident of the home, allegedly “admitted to using the bungee cord to secure the closet door.”
It’s unclear who the third adult was.
The post ‘Secured by a bungee cord’: Mother and her boyfriend locked 4-year-old in dark closet ‘daily’ for 12 hours, deputies say first appeared on Law & Crime.
