Maintenance workers at a Houston apartment complex, get a service call for a non-working dishwasher.
As they make repairs, a child can be heard crying, inconsolably, in another room. The workers find a toddler, lying on the living room floor under a blanket. Lifting the blanket, the 2-year-old child’s limbs are duct-taped together. The workers take photos and videos, leave the apartment, and call Houston police.
Police take the girl to the hospital, where doctors say she might not have survived the night, had she not been brought in for care. KPRC reports the child was determined to be non-verbal and suffering from physical abuse as well as psychological abuse and neglect. Doctors discovered she also suffered a brain bleed caused by head trauma, anemia, and kidney failure as a result of the abuse.
Even though she is two years old, the victim is so malnourished, and her weight is equivalent to that of an average 1-year-old.
Child Protective Services meets with the adults and five other children living in the apartment. The biological mother of the 2-year-old girl lives in another state and left her daughter in the care of the child’s 27-year-old cousin, Toniesha Deshae Perkins. Perkins claims the other children living in the apartment often tie up the toddler and themselves.
Houston Police interview the other children in the home. They say the girl sleeps on the floor and regularly removes the tape from her arms, legs, and mouth. The children say the toddler “gets popped” when she does, and a lock has been put on the refrigerator to prevent the little one from accessing food.
Three adults living in the apartment, Toniesha Deshae Perkins, Perkins’ boyfriend, 23-year-old Kenry Fluker, and the toddler’s 17-year-old aunt, Mya Jhari Breaux-McGruder, are now charged with injury to a child and unlawful restraint of a person under 17.
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[Feature Photo: Pixabay]
