Florida Couple Accused of Starving Child
Posted: Sat Jun 19, 2004 8:56 pm
A couple wanted on child abuse charges surrendered to authorities a month after their 10-year-old foster daughter was removed from their home weighing only 29 pounds.
The malnourished girl was locked in her bedroom for days at a time and fed only milk, nutritional drinks and a spoonful of food three times a day, Hernando County sheriff's investigators said Friday.
The girl's 14-year-old brother sneaked her extra food under her door two or three times a week, investigators said. She was given a paint bucket to use as a toilet.
"It was like the pictures you see for hunger relief fund ads of malnourished children in a Third World country," sheriff's Lt. Joseph Paez said. "It was a real disturbing thing."
The National Center for Health Statistics says healthy 10-year-old girls should weigh from 53 to 106 pounds.
Arthur Thomas Allain Jr., 46, and Lori Allain, 47, were arrested Thursday and released after posting $20,000 bail each on abuse and neglect charges. Reached at home Saturday, Lori Allain declined to comment.
The foster parents and the girl told investigators that she had an eating disorder that made her vomit. But health care workers said she has no physical or psychological problems and has been gaining weight with proper nutrition.
The siblings went to live with the Allains after the state terminated their mother's parental rights in 1999. The Allains, who were friends of the family, allegedly began denying the girl food in January 2001.
State child-protection workers acting on a complaint removed the girl May 18.
The malnourished girl was locked in her bedroom for days at a time and fed only milk, nutritional drinks and a spoonful of food three times a day, Hernando County sheriff's investigators said Friday.
The girl's 14-year-old brother sneaked her extra food under her door two or three times a week, investigators said. She was given a paint bucket to use as a toilet.
"It was like the pictures you see for hunger relief fund ads of malnourished children in a Third World country," sheriff's Lt. Joseph Paez said. "It was a real disturbing thing."
The National Center for Health Statistics says healthy 10-year-old girls should weigh from 53 to 106 pounds.
Arthur Thomas Allain Jr., 46, and Lori Allain, 47, were arrested Thursday and released after posting $20,000 bail each on abuse and neglect charges. Reached at home Saturday, Lori Allain declined to comment.
The foster parents and the girl told investigators that she had an eating disorder that made her vomit. But health care workers said she has no physical or psychological problems and has been gaining weight with proper nutrition.
The siblings went to live with the Allains after the state terminated their mother's parental rights in 1999. The Allains, who were friends of the family, allegedly began denying the girl food in January 2001.
State child-protection workers acting on a complaint removed the girl May 18.
