Man wearing werewolf mask burns 2-year-old girl with blowtorch and tases her while she sleeps in shocking child abuse case
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
A new report of never-before-seen brutality by a man wearing a werewolf mask was recently revealed by Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan, who said, "It's the thing nightmares are made of and no child should ever be subjected to this."
The sheriff also described how 37-year-old Andrew Ross Celaius used to allegedly torture his girlfriend's two-year-old daughter after she fell asleep. Morgan said video evidence from surveillance equipment found inside the home, as well as Celaius' cellphone, show him burning the girl with a blowtorch, reported CBS 4.
Other instances of abuse included shocking her with a dog collar and throwing a full water bottle at her as she slept. "We had a number of instances where this individual, the suspect would use an airsoft gun to just shoot a sleeping child, for no other reason but to wake the child up and hurt the child," Morgan said at a press conference held on Wednesday, May 1.
"The level of terror that this child was put through, our abuser would wear a mask, a werewolf mask, and the collar that the chief described is a tasing collar for dogs," Morgan continued. "If you want to think of something you could do to a child to terrorize her, this child lived through that."
An investigation was opened by the Escambia County Sheriff's Office after the accused man's girlfriend took her daughter to a hospital for treatment of what she assumed to be a ringworm infection. "When she took the child to the ER, the ER physicians who are well versed in spotting child abuse quickly determined that that was not any form of ringworm, it was abuse," Morgan said. "In this case, it was burn marks."
According to reports, the child's mother is cooperating with the cops and has not been charged. The police have already arrested Celaius and are now working to determine whether or not there was sexual abuse involved, along with proof of any other person having seen the abusive videos.
"It goes far beyond just a child being abused," Morgan said. "Some of this evidence may have been shared in the cloud and shared with other people." Police officials are also suspecting Celaius of having an accomplice in the act, 36-year-old Eric Furnans, who allegedly destroyed evidence for the abuser while he was behind bars.
Celaius, according to reports, was rushed to the hospital after he was found hanging in his cell, but is still alive. He is charged with probation violation, possession of a weapon, marijuana possession, drug equipment, drugs-health-safety, six counts of aggravated child abuse, four counts of child abuse and three counts of possession of a controlled substance.
"I've been in law enforcement for over 30 years and when I looked at the evidence that I saw here, me and members of my staff were speechless," Morgan said. "We are comforted to some degree that this precious child will not be harmed tonight."