An Illinois couple have been charged with multiple counts of abuse of an 11-year-old boy after he ran away from home and went to a nearby business for help.
Investigators say that Priscilla Marshall, 34, and Cody Marion, 35, abused the boy for years, including hitting him with household objects, pouring dish soap in his mouth and ears, and not allowing him to attend school, WGN reports.
The Fox Lake Police Department said it launched an investigation Friday night when the boy was found waring underwear and appearing to have been beaten.
A local business employee made the call after seeing the boy with blood on his face and welts, abrasions, and scratches on his body. He was taken into protective custody and then to a hospital for an evaluation.
Officers spoke with the boy and then his mother, and then arrested her.
Two other children, ages 1 and 2, were in the home when police arrived and appeared to be unharmed. Two other children were supposedly at school at the time. All four were taken into protective custody before being placed in the temporary care of 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.
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[Featured image: Cody Marion and Priscilla Marshall/Lake County Sheriff’s Office]
