This is when the HLN anchor makes a stunning announcement that shocked the abusive father.
The 11-day search for a missing 12-year-old boy in Detroit came to an end Tuesday when he was found alive and well in the family’s basement.
His father, Charles Bothuell IV, was a guest on Nancy Grace‘s show when he was informed, on live TV, that his son Charlie had been found. The dad appeared stunned, remaining silent for several moments before finally asking, “What?”
When asked how Charlie could have been found in his father’s home, the boy’s father responded, “I have no idea…I checked my basement, the FBI checked my basement, the Detroit police checked my basement, my wife checked my basement.”
Bothuell said he and his wife had checked and so had the FBI and Detroit Police Department.
Police Chief James Craig said that the police had been inside the home with cadaver dogs but weren’t sure how they could’ve missed Charlie. “We’re not certain at all,” said Craig. “Because the question I would ask is how could we miss [him]?”
Craig added that Charlie was found crouching behind a barricade of boxes in the basement. “He was nervous but excited, and glad to see police,” he said, adding that it seemed unlikely Charlie could have built the barricade himself.
According to the investigation, the stepmother of a 12-year-old boy who was found hiding in a Detroit basement told him “not to come out, no matter what he hears,”
According to a court petition, it stated that Charlie had scars on his chest and buttocks. He said the scar was the result of his father “driving a PVC pipe into his chest.”
Although his stepmom, Monique Dillard-Bothuell, knew he was in the basement, she did not take him food, the court petition claimed.
“Chalie reports sneaking upstairs to get food when everyone left home,” the petition said.
The court also heard that Charlie’s two younger siblings, aged four and 10 months, have been removed from the custody of parents Dillard-Bothuell and Charlie Bothuell IV and taken into care.
According to AWM:
In a turn of events, Charles IV and his wife, Monique, were both arrested for torture and second-degree child abuse. Two years later in 2016, Charles IV pleaded guilty to fourth-degree child abuse when he confessed that he used to beat the boy with a PVC pipe.
Charles IV lost custody of his son and was sent to anger management. He also received eighteen months of probation.
Watch the video report below for more details:
Source: AWM