Sadistic family slapped with 50 child abuse charges as cops make horrifying discovery in their home
If you or anyone you know suspects child abuse, you are urged to immediately call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential and the hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
SPARTANBURG, SOUTH CAROLINA: Four people, a man and his three family members who were recently arrested, have been charged with 50 separate child abuse related offences, including forcing an eight-year-old girl to consume cat’s feces and forcing her to clean up her own waste.
All four suspects appeared before a magistrate for a formal bond hearing on more than 50 warrants without any representation on Friday, September 7. According to information provided to Law & Crime by the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office, Ian Tatro, 25, faces 13 counts of unlawful neglect of a child and two counts of obstruction, Tenika Draper, 24, stands accused of 11 counts of unlawful neglect of a child and three counts of obstruction, Trina Rae Draper, 47, stands accused of five counts of cruelty to children, three counts of obstruction and one count of assault and battery, and Ryan Dezotelle, 28, faces three counts of cruelty to children, three counts of assault and battery and two counts of obstruction.
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The SCSO Public Information Officer Lieutenant Kevin Bobo confirmed that Tatro is the biological father of the eight-year-old while Draper is her stepmother and Trina is her step-grandmother. Dezotelle is identified as the child's stepuncle.
The sheriff’s office said that the deputies first visited the Draper residence in Wellford, South Carolina, on September 2 after the Department of Social Services called the officials for a child abuse investigation. An anonymous source alerted the child welfare agency about potential child abuse. Upon their arrival, the officials found four adults and four children at home. Investigators noticed that the oldest child of the family had “a noticeable limp and temporary tattoos covering multiple visible bruises on both legs."
“The victim was interviewed at the hospital by medical personnel and one of our SVU investigators, where more detailed information was discovered,” Bobo said. “After that initial medical exam, the victim was evaluated again by a forensic doctor later last month, who stated the victim clearly met the criteria for a medical diagnosis of child torture. In forensic interviews at the Children’s Advocacy Center, the victim gave detailed and credible disclosures of multiple instances of abuse by various means from all four adults in the home.”
During the bond hearing, the county attorney identified the child and revealed the stepmother of the girl forced her to eat cat feces and cat treats. She also made the girl eat gummy laxatives and while her father forced her to wear pull-up diapers. "The girl was not allowed to use the bathroom," the prosecutor said adding that the adults made her clean her own waste. The attorney revealed once her stepmother rubbed her face on the carpet after she mistakenly peed on it and failed to clean it according to adults’ standards.
"She was forced to stand at the table eating different foods from the rest of the family, with a time limit," Assistant Solicitor Tony Leibert, with the Seventh Circuit Solicitor's Office, said. "On one occasion, the victim vomited into her bowl and was made to eat the vomit.” Tatro reportedly once told the girl that he wish he could kill her and get away with it. More child abuse has been recorded in the court document including being beaten with boards, cords, and frying pans, being forced to stand in a garbage can, being placed in a “hypothermia bath,” being forced to stay in the closet for long periods of time and sleep there, and being forced to kneel inside wooden crates.
The girl is currently in a foster home while the three other kids are at their home under DSS custody. “This little girl said this is the best day of my life, when the police took her. Not Disneyland, not Carowinds, not the mall or Walmart Supercenter," Leibert said.
All four adults were granted a cash bond with conditions of GPS monitoring, no contact with the victim, witnesses, each other and any other children. They cannot make contact with the residence where the alleged crimes happened. They will appear in court on December 8, where an attorney will represent them.