A Florida couple is facing child neglect charges after authorities alleged they kept four children inside the cab of a tractor-trailer for nearly six years, leaving them without regular “time to take showers, use the restroom,” or “exercise outside,” according to arrest records.
The children told interviewers at a child advocacy center that they “have not been allowed to attend school for approximately five years,” an arrest report states.
Keisha Epps, 51, and her fiancée, Tamra Marshon Stewart, 37, had been living in the truck cab with the children while Epps worked as a truck driver on a route between Miami and Atlanta, court documents said.
Investigators said the children had been kept inside the vehicle “for the majority of their days” since December 2019.
A Florida couple faces four counts of child neglect after investigators said four children were largely confined for years inside a tractor-trailer cab. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images; Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office)
A detective assigned to the case noted that the children were “walking with an unnatural gait from being confined to the cab.”
According to the report, the children were “fed poorly” and had not received medical or dental care, including in emergency situations.
In one interview, a child described an incident in which she “burned herself badly with cooked noodles.”
“There was a lot of blood,” she said.
Neither Stewart nor Epps took her to get medical treatment, the child told investigators. The child has a “permanent scar” from the burn, court records show.
Court records say all four children shared a bunk so small they had to sleep curled up side by side inside the tractor-trailer cab. (Joe Raedle/Newsmakers via Getty Images)
Stewart, who “would watch” the children when Epps was sleeping, showering, and driving the truck, the children said. And when the children witnessed sexual abuse and confronted Stewart, he “beat them by punching them in their heads,” reports show. The identity of the alleged victim of sexual abuse wasn’t clear.
The children said they told Epps about the sexual abuse and saw her witness the sexual abuse. She called one “derogatory names and continued to leave them alone with” Stewart, reports show.
One of the children was found to have an untreated sexually transmitted infection.
All four children shared a bunk in the cab so small that they had to lie “curled up side by side because they could not fit,” reports show.
Keisha Epps and Tamra Marshon Stewart were arrested Aug. 6 and remain jailed as they await trial on child neglect charges. (Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office)
Both Epps and Stewart were arrested on Aug. 6, 2026, according to a heavily redacted report filed with the court by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Epps and Stewart both were charged with four counts of child neglect—one count for each child. Each count of a third-degree felony is punishable by up to five years in prison, up to five years probation and a fine of up to $5,000 Investigators said their actions demonstrated a “committed, willful failure or omission to provide a child with the care, supervision, and services necessary to maintain the child’s physical and mental health, including but not limited to, food, nutrition, clothing, shelter, supervision, medicine and medical services that a prudent person would consider essential to the wellbeing of the child.”
According to court documents, “capital sexual battery charges” against Stewart will be filed in the “9th Judicial District by the Statewide Prosecutor,” a report shows. Under Florida law, anyone convicted of sexual battery of a child younger than 12 years old can face the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
All information about the children was redacted from reports, including their sexes, ages and relationships to each other and to Epps and Stewart. Epps and Stewart are being held in the Duval County Jail awaiting trial. Bond was set at $400,012 for Epps. Stewart was being held without bond.
