How did Brandy Kay Jaynes 12 year old son come to live sequestrated in a feces stained hidden bathroom in the family home where he weighed only 30 pounds?
Brandy Kay Jaynes a 36 year old Toquerville, Utah woman faces 15 years jail after local authorities discovered one of the ‘worst cases of child malnutrition’ that they had ever seen.
Upon her arrest on Monday, the mother was charged with second degree intentional child abuse notes The Spectrum.
According to court documents, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office received a child abuse call from the Dixie Regional Medical Center in Utah on Sunday regarding a 12 year old boy.
Told a responding detective after having entered the family home: ‘I could see … a small-framed child that appeared to be very skinny,’
Notice of the boy’s ‘deplorable’ living circumstances came after the child’s father took him to hospital for treatment, Sunday night.
Hospital officials said that the boy weighed just 30 pounds, which the federal government says is the average weight of a two-year-old toddler.
Doctors plan to keep the boy at Dixie Regional for at least three weeks in order to restore him back to normal health.
The boy’s father told law enforcement officials that he found his son locked in an upstairs bathroom inside the mother’s home.
He reportedly told sheriffs that he found the boy lying on the bathroom floor under a blanket.
After the boy’s hospitalization, sheriffs obtained a search warrant for the mother’s home.
When they searched the home, they found two latches on the exterior of the bathroom door which were used to lock the door from the outside.
When they entered the bathroom, sheriffs found feces covering the floor.
Investigators also noticed that the toilet bowl was ‘full of feces to the point that you could not see any water.’
A probable cause statement also noted detectives finding a few empty cans of beans in the shower, with the shower’s drain covered in duct tape. Detectives also located a video camera and baby monitor duct-taped to the shower’s ledge which the mother said she used to ‘check up’ on her son.
Told Washington County Lt. David Crouse, ‘The child looked like he was the victim of a concentration camp from World War II.’
Responding to investigator queries, the mother said her son ‘chose to live and sleep in the bathroom.’
The mother is alleged to have told investigators that she would lock her son in the bathroom ‘for his safety when she would leave the house.’
Jaynes also told them that she would try to keep her son’s weight at a normal level by feeding him protein drinks.
Define normal?
Of note, a report via fox13now tells of authorities discovering that the son had been locked in the bathroom for at least a year.
Not clear is when the father came to find out about his son’s condition. It is thought that the man is estranged from the boy’s mother.
Investigators said the 12 year old boy had siblings who appeared normal and who had last had physical content with their twelve year old brother six months ago.
The boy reportedly was taken out of school three years ago. His two siblings continued to go to school, and showed no signs of abuse noted Washington County Sheriff’s Lt. David Crouse.
At present it is believed the mother remains in custody pending a $20,000 cash-only bail.
Brandy Kay Jaynes’ next court appearance is on January 17.
