Inset, left to right: Phyllis Culp and Kyle Reynold (Grant County Detention Center). Background: The Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office (Google Maps).
A 23-year-old man in Kentucky and his 29-year-old girlfriend are accused of severely abusing her children, with him allegedly strangling and beating the kids for months while their mother hid in the bathroom and concealed their bruises with makeup.
Kyle Reynold is facing the most serious charges, including one count of attempted murder as well as four counts each of second-degree assault, first-degree strangulation, and first-degree criminal abuse of a child under 12, authorities announced. The mother, Phyllis Culp, was taken into custody and charged with two counts each of first-degree criminal abuse, endangering the welfare of a minor, first-degree strangulation, and second-degree assault.
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According to a news release from the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office, the investigation into the couple began after the children arrived at school with “visible abuse injuries,” including black eyes, bruises, and bite marks. The Gallatin County school reported the suspected child abuse on Aug. 28 to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services.
Deputies responded to the family’s residence to check on the two children later that afternoon. Reynold was arrested shortly afterward.
Court documents obtained by Cincinnati NBC affiliate WLWT provided additional details about the allegations against Reynold and Culp. The children allegedly told authorities their mother’s boyfriend “struck and strangled them,” according to the court documents.
The court documents describe an alleged pattern of abuse that lasted about two months. One child reportedly remembered Reynold saying he would “choke her until she died” and “goodnight forever.”
The allegations also include punching, biting and forcing the children to hold heavy objects, according to the court documents reported by WLWT.
Culp allegedly told authorities she witnessed the abuse and would go “into a bathroom to hide whenever he abuses the children,” according to the court documents.
She allegedly told police Reynold was a “diagnosed psychopath” and that she knew he wasn’t taking his medicine.
Culp also allegedly told police she would apply makeup to the children to “conceal their injuries” before sending them to school. She allegedly said she would allow Reynold back into the home if he were released “because she loves him.”
The children were interviewed and medically evaluated before being taken to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, WLWT reported. According to the court documents, their injuries and safety concerns were “so severe the hospital admitted the children.”
Reynold remained in detention at the Grant County Detention Center, according to the sheriff’s office.
The post Mom ‘hid in the bathroom’ while boyfriend beat, strangled kids, telling them to say ‘goodnight forever’: Police first appeared on Law & Crime.
