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A 13-year-old boy who police say was kept from his mother for four years, until he was found hidden in a crawl space in his father’s Clayton County home, may have never been reported missing.
“We were unable to locate any type of formal notification in regards to this kid being missing either through our law enforcement network or any other legal manner,” Clayton police chief Greg Porter told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tuesday.
Late Friday, police received a 911 call from Lisa Smith, who lives in Orlando, Fla., saying her son was in danger in the Jonesboro home. Police were dispatched to the home on a child welfare check and told the boy was not there. They searched the home and left, but returned later. The boy’s father and stepmother initially said they did not know the boy and that he was not in the home. But the child, whose name was not released, led police to his whereabouts through descriptions of the house via cellphone texts to Smith. Officers said the teen was scared and bleeding from the mouth.
Clayton police said Smith told them she had not seen her son in four years and had reported him missing to child services officials.
Gregory Jean Sr., the boy’s father, and Samantha Davis, the stepmother, were arrested and booked with child cruelty, imprisonment and obstruction. Three other juveniles in the home were also arrested.
Meanwhile, court documents obtained by Channel 2 Action News show that a Superior Court judge had awarded custody of the boy to his father. Documents show that Jean was awarded sole and physical custody in July 2011. Smith may not have been aware of the court action, according to Channel 2 Action News.
Efforts to reach Smith Tuesday evening were unsuccessful.
The documents raise more questions about who had custody of the teen, whether law enforcement knew to look for him and whether child protective services ever intervened.
A spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Human Services, which oversees the Division of Family and Children Services, declined to say whether the agency had had any involvement with the family.
If the 2011 court document is authentic, the case is now between the Clayton juvenile court and the Fulton superior court to sort out the parental custody details, said Capt. Angelo Daniel of the Clayton police department.
On Monday, a Clayton juvenile judge granted custody of the boy to Smith, according to Daniel. Mother and son have since left Georgia.
“We have good evidence that this child was being mistreated while he was living with his father,” Daniel said. “It is a case that involves many dynamics that we continue to look at.”
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