Nation & World News
Teen weighing 55 pounds after years in basement still ‘gravely ill,’ according to police
By Crystal Bonvillian
Nov 16, 2016An Alabama teen hospitalized on Sunday after what police describe as two years isolated in his parents' basement remained in critical condition Wednesday in a Shelby County hospital.
The 14-year-old, who Helena Police Chief Pete Folmar described to WVTM in Birmingham as "severely, chronically malnourished, dehydrated, suffering from acute respiratory distress, shock, hypothermia," and being "close to death," was hospitalized on Sunday. His adoptive parents, Richard Hobson Kelly, 56, and 47-year-old Cynthia Rogers Kelly, were taken into custody that same day.
The Kellys, who are charged with aggravated child abuse, are being held in lieu of $1 million bond each.
"The child remains gravely ill at this time and faces a long, difficult recovery and uncertain prognosis," Folmar told local media.
Police said that the boy, who investigators believe has special needs, had never been enrolled in a public school in Shelby County. Besides homeschooling the teen, the Kellys kept to themselves and did not socialize with their neighbors, AL.com reported.
One neighbor told the newspaper he had seen the boy cutting his family’s lawn but that he thought the teen was much younger due to his size.
“He was so small, I thought he was about 8 or 10,” Troy Clayton told AL.com. “It took all he had to push the lawnmower.”
Arrest warrants indicate the couple is accused of denying their son food, water and medical care as they forced him to remain in the basement for extended periods of time. There were no indications that they handcuffed or otherwise restrained him during those periods.
The Kellys have lived in Helena for about two decades, raising the teen and an adopted daughter, who is now 19, AL.com reported. The daughter and a 21-year-old man also live in the family’s home, but neither of them appeared to have been harmed. They have not been charged in the boy’s alleged abuse.
It was not immediately clear if the couple’s two children were adopted in Alabama. Each parent faces two to 20 years in prison on the felony charge they face, if convicted.
