Three grown-ups and a 16-year-old girl have been taken into custody in Iowa after an 18-year-old family member was found at a nearby hospital weighing only 70 pounds.
Gary Graham Jr., 44; Danielle Graham, 42; Aaron Williams, 20; and Kaitlyn Williams, 16, are accused of kidnapping and causing intentional harm, and are set for a preliminary hearing on March 29, according to WHO. The teenager has been charged as an adult.
The Story County Sheriff’s Office declared that the inquiry into the Zearing family commenced on January 27 after a Des Moines hospital informed them about the 18-year-old male victim’s transfer from an Ames hospital. The victim was “severely malnourished and had multiple traumatic injuries including a brain bleed, multiple rib fractures, and other bruising, sores, and cuts,” court documents say.
The documents say that Danielle Graham told investigators that the victim — her son — left home in November when he turned 18, although, she said, she didn’t tell anyone he left. She hadn’t had contact with him since that time.
He returned on January 26, she said. Her other son, Aaron Williams, found him knocking on the front door and brought him inside in “a semi-conscious state, having difficulty breathing, and being unable to speak.” Williams reportedly put him in a car and Graham drove him to the hospital.
A search warrant included with the court documents reveals that investigators found Graham’s accounting “highly suspicious.” The document says that the victim communicated with school officials, trying “to have the school demand that he attend school in person without his parents knowing.”
The detective wrote that it wasn’t clear how the victim got to the home on January 26, given than his mother said “he was unable to stand, walk or talk” and that he had no “cold weather injuries to support the mother’s claims that he had been homeless.
Further, investigators found videos and texts on family members’ phones — including the 16-year-old’s phone — that show the victim after his mother said he had left home. In one, from December, the victim appeared to have athletic tape on his wrists and was extremely thin. A bunk bed with I-bolts and handcuffs and shackles was in the background of the videos.
The victim told investigators that his parents put him in handcuffs at night and that Gary Graham or Aaron Williams frequently beat him during the day.
Court records show that the three adults, arrested on Monday, are being held on $1 million bonds each. The juvenile has a $500,000 bond.
[Featured image: Gary Graham, Danielle Graham, Aaron Williams, Kaitlyn Williams/Story County Sheriff’s Office]