Parents Abandon 12YO Wheelchair-Bound Disabled Son and Move Away to New Home, Leaving Him Unattended in a Locked House

Editor's note: This article was originally published on June 25, 2020. It has since been updated.

Children are referred to as a gift of god to all those who have done good in their lives. They are believed to be sent on earth to embody heaven. There are couples around the world who pray day and night for these tiny human beings to bless them but are left disappointed. On the other hand, there are humans who neglect these precious little gems, clouded by their selfish desires and motives. Stories of children getting abandoned or left on the streets to survive by themselves have been surfacing a lot lately. The story of this 12-year-old boy with cerebral palsy is just another one added to the long list.

Janine Allen, 30, and Brendon Luke, 29, left their 12-year-old boy with cerebral palsy in their Blue Spring home by himself while they moved to a new house a couple of miles away. The Missouri couple is each being held on a $250,000 bond charged with felony, abuse, and neglect of a child after they allegedly abandoned the boy, moved to a bigger house just two miles away, and monitored his activities with an in-house video system. They would return periodically to give him food and water. According to reports by The Sun, the couple's new house was huge compared to their Blue Spring residence with a spacious basement, enough space for the boy, and their other kids to have not one but individual rooms.

The incident came to light because of some concerned neighbors. They notified the Blue Spring police that the boy required a wheelchair to move around and had been left at home for weeks which prompted the investigation in early June, reported the Kansas City Star. According to the court records, when a police officer confronted Janine, she told him through a doorbell camera that the boy was okay, and that she was monitoring him on camera. She explained that she and her husband monitored the child through a two-way camera which alerted them about movements and noises from inside the house.

Janine told the police officers that her child could dial 911 and also call her during emergencies, reported the Kansas City Star. Videos show her instructing her son to tell the officers that he can walk and use the bathroom, "Because someone called them and said I wasn’t taking care of you and wasn’t feeding you, but I’m doing those things, aren’t I?”

She's been seen rehearsing with her son before the investigators arrived, according to the court statements.

According to the court documents, a Children's Division worker who had been working with the family since October stated that he wasn't aware of the family's migration to the new house and the child being left behind. The worker also said that the child was becoming "increasingly violent" towards the family and needed residential placement. But his mother hadn't completed the required paperwork, reported Kansas City Star.

The police explained the appalling situation of the room the boy was locked in, to the Kansas City Star. Investigators reported that inside the room they found feces and it smelled of urine. The phone didn't have a dial tone as well. If that wasn't enough, a video found by the cops shows the child struggling for 20 minutes to escape the room with a small piece of wire. There is no end to the evidence found which shows the ruthless treatment of the kid by his parents. Another video shows Brendon "throwing the food on the floor" and leaving the house within six minutes of the visit.

Janine told the investigators on June 11, 2020, that the boy had been left in the house since Mother's Day, May 10, stating that leaving the house was the only way to protect her family from violence, according to the court documents. The New York Times reported that according to the witnesses, she didn't want her son to ruin the walls of the new house.

In a home surveillance video, later obtained by the police, the boy can be heard saying, "I want out. I don't like this, mommy." Reported by the Kansas City Star, Janine's attorney P.J O'Conner told McClatchy News that there was more to the case than it appears on the surface of the arrest affidavit. He said in an email, “I’ve just entered my appearance on the case and there is a lot more to the story than what’s been presented in the probable cause statement,” O’Connor said in an email. “Until I’ve viewed all the evidence I don’t want to comment any further.”

Police said that according to a Children's Mercy clinic, the boy is "medically complex" and shouldn't have been left alone in any way. According to the court documents, he was at the clinic in September with a "suspicious" broken arm after an altercation with Janine, his mother. A school resource officer said that he needed support for using the bathroom, eating, and mobility.

According to the police even though Jackson County Family Court obtained emergency custody of the boy, Brendon, the child's father took him later to a residential facility in southern Missouri despite the custody order.

References:

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11924043/cruel-parents-abandon-devastated-disabled-son-12-move/

https://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/national/article243646527.html

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/06/19/us/ap-us-abandoned-boy-missouri-.html

Representational Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by RapidEye