Left: Amy Billotte. Right: Sarah Faber (Jefferson County Prison).
Two Pennsylvania women are behind bars for allegedly tormenting their adopted teenage son by duct-taping him to his bedroom floor, forcing him to stand up for long periods of time and withholding food from him which caused him to lose 20 pounds.
Amy L. Billotte, 51, and Sarah Lynn Faber, 37, face more than 950 counts each, per prosecutors and a docket sheet. There are more than 460 counts of unlawful restraint of a minor by a parent with risk of bodily injury and more than 460 counts of false imprisonment of a minor by a parent.
Other charges include endangering the welfare of a child, simple assault and terroristic threats.
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According to a criminal complaint obtained by local NBC affiliate WJAC and CBS affiliate WTAJ, concerned school officials in early September called police in Brookville, which is some 70 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, after the 16-year-old boy showed up looking malnourished. They had not seen him since May 2024, as he typically goes to virtual school. The boy had lost roughly 20 pounds in that time span, cops reportedly said.
Authorities interviewed the boy, who detailed abuse allegedly at the hands of the women. He said he would be confined to his room that lacked any toys, books or electronics for hours at a time with cameras monitoring his every movement, the complaint said. The cameras had motion sensors and the women would get upset if he moved too much, per the complaint.
He reportedly claimed that as a form of punishment, the suspects would allegedly strip him naked and force him to take a cold shower. Other punishments included making him live in the basement for a week while only wearing his underwear, according to cops. The suspects also allegedly strapped him down with duct tape to the basement floor.
The suspects also reportedly sliced his genitals and cut his arm with a blade, which caused excessive bleeding.
“Luckily, I didn”t die from that,” he allegedly said.
Faber and Billotte also reportedly threatened to “squirt cat insulin into his eyes.”
Child protective services removed him from the home and took him to a hospital, where he regained the weight he lost within weeks. The boy explained to investigators that when he was first placed in the suspects’ home, things were good.
“I thought it was going to be fun,” he said. “There were toys and books, and they would read me bedtime stories every night.”
But the situation began to take a turn for the worse when Billotte and Faber began to withhold sugar-based foods, saying they made him hyper, the affidavit stated. They then allegedly began to take food away from him. Billotte and Faber also allegedly forced him to lay on the floor without a mattress and on a couple of occasions duct-taped him to his bedroom floor.
Both suspects were arrested on Tuesday and remain in the Jefferson County Prison on $500,000 bonds. Their next court dates are scheduled for Dec. 19.
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