A malnourished teenager, found wandering and confused in a California bus depot, told authorities he spent the last four years locked in a room at his parents’ Georgia home.
At 5 feet 3 inches tall, Mitch Comer weighed just 97 pounds; his skin nearly translucent. His younger sisters told authorities they hadn’t seen him in two years, though they lived in the same Dallas house. Neighbors said they didn’t know the family had a son.
Comer was discovered last week by a Los Angeles security officer who believed he looked too young and frail to be alone, authorities said. He told the officer his stepfather, Paul Comer, had put him on a bus in Mississippi on his 18th birthday, but he didn’t know why.
Paul and Sheila Marie Comer are in custody in Paulding County. They face six counts of child cruelty and one of false imprisonment. Their other children, girls ages 11 and 13, have been placed in state care.
Authorities say they are merely at the “tip of the iceberg” in investigating a bizarre case that could lead to several other charges. They would not elaborate further.
“We’ve still got a long, long road ahead of us,” said Cpl. Ashley Henson, spokesman for the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office, noting the agency is joined by the GBI and FBI in the investigation. “This is one of those things that will be on-going for weeks, if not months.”
It’s unknown whether the teenager has any physical or developmental disabilities. Monica Moore, an investigator with the Paulding County District Attorney’s office, described him in an interview with Channel 2 Actions News as small, very timid, but exceedingly polite. Moore accompanied him back to Georgia on Thursday.
Paulding County D.A. Dick Donovan told Channel 2 that his office struggled to find an agency willing to take the young man because he is legally an adult. But this week, a local family agreed to house the teenager, according to Channel 2.
“An 18-year-old is still a boy, especially when he’s been in circumstances in which this young man has been for the last few years,” Donovan said.
If Mitch Comer’s claims that he spent four years, or 1,460 days, locked away in a room are true, Donovan plans to pursue charges for each day of captivity, he said.
“I would be more than happy to go to the grand jury and ask them to indict for cruelty to children [on] 1,460 counts,” he said.
Reached by phone Thursday, Sheila Comer’s mother burst into tears. Diane Powell, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, said she hasn’t spoken to her daughter in more than a decade and last knew the family to be living in Ohio. Prior to that, the Comers lived in California and Arizona, she said. It’s unknown whether the family has relatives in California.
Powell said she feared her estranged daughter and husband abused their children, but she never had direct proof.
She’s never met her granddaughters and said she hasn’t seen her grandson since he was a toddler.
“They mistreated him something terrible,”she said between tears. “I got on her case about it and she disappeared from my life.”
Powell said she wants to bring her grandchildren home to Iowa.
The state Division of Family and Child Services couldn’t confirm or deny whether the agency has been called to the Comer’s home in recent years. A spokesman from Paulding County Public Schools could also not confirm whether the children have ever been enrolled in the school system.
Records show the Comers have had nearly two dozen address during the past two decades. It’s unknown how long the Comers have lived in their upscale Dallas home, but neighbors said the family has been there at least a few years.
Neighbors Dion Walker and Mea Smith, who live next door to the family, said their children had played with the Comers’ daughters over the years. Never in the two years they lived on Vivid Lane, however, had they seen Mitch Comer. They were shocked to learn their neighbors had a son.
“We had never seen this child,” Smith said. “Never. Never even signs of him at all.”
Walker said something seemed amiss with her neighbors, but she never imagined the allegations they now face. The women said they feel a measure of guilt about what they didn’t know.
“Maybe, when the young girls would stare at us, were they trying to say something?” Walker said. “Should we have noticed?”
— Staff photographer John Spink contributed to this report
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