CHEYENNE, Wyo. (TCN) — A couple has been charged with aggravated child abuse after allegedly refusing to feed a 14-year-old boy and forcing him to drink dangerous quantities of water, authorities say.
The boy’s mother, Stephanie Linke, 36, and her boyfriend, Michael Gruchacz, 35, were both charged with two counts of aggravated child abuse and could serve up to 25 years in prison. Cap City News reports Linke’s cash bond was set at $500,000. Gruchacz posted a $50,000 cash bond and reportedly turned himself in after Linke was arrested.
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Cowboy State Daily, authorities became aware of the alleged abuse on Oct. 16, when Linke and Gruchacz brought the child to an emergency room. The child had only lived with them for four months. Before that, he had lived with his grandmother.
Linke allegedly told staff that her son was starving himself and refusing to drink, so she had forced him to consume 2 gallons of water that day. Hospital staff said Linke and Gruchacz seemed unconcerned about the child’s welfare.
The child was actively seizing at the emergency room and was flown to the Denver Children’s Hospital, according to Cap City News, where he did not regain consciousness until the next day.
Hospital staff said the child would have died without medical treatment because the amount of water he drank caused hyponatremia, a condition that occurs when the blood sodium level is too low.
Staff at both medical centers reported that the child was covered in scars, bruises, and other marks, Cap City News reports.
Court records obtained by Cowboy State Daily allege the child lived in a basement, was forced to drink gallons of water each day, and was punished by being forced to hand-wash his clothes in a bathtub if he urinated in them. Forensic interviews with the child’s brother allege that the child only ate oatmeal and ramen and had to stand at a specific spot at the counter to eat.
After being discharged from the hospital, the child told interviewers he was hit, yelled at, and dragged, and, in one instance, pushed into a steel door during the four months he lived with Linke and Gruchacz.
In home security footage obtained by authorities, Linke allegedly asked the child, “Why shouldn’t I throw you in the trash?”
Cap City News reports Linke said she had read people should drink half their body weight in water each day.
Once under the care of doctors, the child, who weighed 92 pounds at 5 feet, 4 inches tall when he was first admitted, gained 11 pounds in 11 days, according to Cowboy State Daily.
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