A young boy found locked inside a padlocked dog kennel has been rescued after he told deputies that he had been living outside in the kennel since April because he didn’t have a room inside the home where his father and stepmother were living.
Around 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 19, an anonymous person called 911 to report a child living inside a dog kennel.
The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office responded to the home on Cress Road in Lexington and found the child. The young boy was found in a t-shirt, jeans, and with no shoes on. Deputies said when they arrived, they observed frost on the ground. They broke the padlock on the kennel and got the boy to safety.
While deputies were on the scene, they saw a woman at the home’s backdoor with a small child in her arms. The woman then walked out of sight of deputies and turned the lights off, according to police warrants. Police forced entry into the home, where they detained Sarah Starr, the 9-year-old boy’s stepmother. When questioned about the child locked inside the dog kennel, Starr told police that she didn’t know the combination to the lock and that her aunt, Shelley Barnes, was the only one who knew it.
When police first spotted Starr, she had an eight-month-old in her arms, and a four-year-old was found underneath Starr’s bed. Both children were taken out of the home by EMS.
While EMS checked the 9-year-old boy, he told them he had been living outside in the kennel since April. The warrant said Starr told authorities she knew the child was being held in a dog kennel but said her aunt was the only one who knew the combination. Starr also told detectives that she and her husband, the boy’s father, were “upset about it.”
First, if you know a child is locked inside a dog kennel and you don’t have the combination, you should have called 911, and they could have gotten the young child out. But there is no damn reason a child should be living inside a dog kennel for four months because you don’t know the combination lock. GIRL, BYE!
Starr also has two other children, a seven and an eight-year-old, who was at school at the time.
While police were at the scene, a man came and told them that the child had been in the kennel since 10:30 p.m. the night before, and according to warrants, the man said he had brought the young boy a coat and snacks.
Ummmm, if you see a child in a dog kennel, why would you bring him a coat and snacks instead of getting him out of it? You know a CHILD does not belong in a effing dog kennel, let alone at 10:30 at night when temperatures are below freezing. SMH!
The young boy told investigations that he did not have a room in the house “because he lived outside.”
The boy’s father, stepmother, and stepmother’s aunt were arrested and charged with felony child abuse.
Somebody should put their a*s in a damn dog kennel with no food and no coat and see how they like it. Sick pieces of shit!
Jonathan Starr, the boy’s father, and Sarah Starr, the stepmother, were arrested and charged with felony child abuse inflicting serious physical injury, misdemeanor child abuse, and false imprisonment.
The stepmother’s aunt, Shelley Lucille Barnes, was charged with felony child abuse inflicting serious physical injury, misdemeanor child abuse, false imprisonment, and possession of a firearm by a felon.
During a news conference, the sheriff’s office said all five of the children were taken into custody by the Department of Social Services and were in good health.
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