CPS was warned about Ethan Crumbley's parents who would leave him home alone to go drinking
One of the Crumbleys neighbors, when the couple used to live near Lake Orion before moving to Oxford, warned child protective services (CPS) about the parents "leaving Ethan at home while they went out drinking."
Back in 2014 and 2015, Kayla LeMieux claims that Jennifer and James Crumbley often left Ethan alone at home when they went out to enjoy the nightlife in downtown Lake Orion, when the Oxford High School shooting suspect was only eight or nine years old. LeMieux told the Detroit Free Press that she once made an anonymous phone complaint to the state’s Children’s Protective Services agency because she was so concerned about the boy's well-being. There were also occasions where Ethan would knock on her door and ask her to call his parents when they were gone. “They didn’t leave him with a phone,'" said LeMieux.
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The 28-year-old neighbor also dished out details about how she had struck up a friendship with Jennifer Crumbley when she worked with her at a restaurant in 2012. However, their friendship ended in part because of LeMieux's concerns about Ethan. “It was really when I finally started to say more, because I was just like, even after calling CPS, they were still doing it and even me saying something to them, they were still like ‘Oh he is fine,’" LeMieux told the Free Press.
When the outlet reached out to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to verify LeMieux's account, the Free Press was told that all reports were confidential. It remains unclear if CPS ever did anything about LeMieux's complaint. News Nation Now correspondent posted a photo of Crumbley's house after the family had been taken into the custody of the Oakland police. "Quiet outside the Crumbley house tonight with the entire family in jail. Sheriff says mom, dad, and son are all separated and not allowed any communication. Ethan Crumbley — the accused school shooter — likely doesn’t even know his parents were arrested," he reported.
Quiet outside the Crumbley house tonight with the entire family in jail.
— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) December 4, 2021
Sheriff says mom, dad, and son are all separated and not allowed any communication. Ethan Crumbley — the accused school shooter — likely doesn’t even know his parents were arrested. More on @NewsNationNow. pic.twitter.com/0G2X5oG64a
What has James and Jennifer Crumbley been charged with?
Both Jennifer and James Crumbley have been charged with involuntary manslaughter over their son's alleged shooting at Oxford High School last week that left four dead and injured seven. Both parents have pleaded "not guilty." As MEAWW reported earlier, James Crumbley bought a 9mm Sig Sauer SP 2022 pistol at a Black Friday sale just days before the shooting that Ethan Crumbley used to kill four students in the school shooting. The teen possibly was carrying this gun in his bag during a behavioral meeting with administrators just before the attack.
Oakland County Lt. Tim Willis said in a press conference on December 3 that Ethan accompanied his father when James purchased the 9 mm Sig Sauer handgun from a shop four days before the shooting. A day after Ethan boasted about the weapon on social media, uploading a photo of it and calling it his "new beauty." Jennifer penned her own Instagram post detailing how she and Ethan had spent the day testing the new gun. "Mom and son day testing out his new Christmas present," Jennifer is said to have written in the since-deleted post. According to prosecutors, the gun was stored in an unlocked safe inside Jennifer and James' bedroom.
Ethan Crumbley, a sophomore at Oxford High School, will be charged with one count of terrorism causing death and four counts of first-degree murder in the shooting that killed Hana St Juliana, 14, Madisyn Baldwin, 17, Tate Myre, 16, and Justin Shilling, 17. He also faces seven counts of assault with intent to murder and 12 counts of possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony.