Teen saved from ‘horrific’ abuse after mom’s boyfriend crashes car in Texas, cops say
A 15-year-old Louisiana girl suffering “horrific” abuse at the hands of her mother and mother’s boyfriend has been saved thanks to a car crash in Texas, officials say.
On the morning of April 21, police in Baytown — a roughly 25-mile drive east of Houston — responded to the scene of a car wreck along U.S. Interstate 10, the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana said in a May 15 news release.
Officers arrived to find a male driver armed with a handgun, a woman in the passenger seat and two children in the back, ages 10 and 15, the sheriff’s office said. The 15-year-old was “clinging to life,” and not because of the crash, but because of extensive burns and gunshot wounds she had suffered much earlier, officials said.
The girl, from Thibodaux, was riding with her mother, her mother’s boyfriend and the 10-year-old, investigators said. The mom and her boyfriend have been taken into custody and are facing numerous felony charges.
McClatchy News is not identifying them to protect the identity of the child.
After learning of the nature of the girl’s injuries, Baytown police contacted authorities in Terrebonne Parish.
In a news release, Baytown Chief of Police John Stringer said he was “grieved and horrified” by the case.
“The severe abuse and torture of a 15-year-old girl by members of her own family is a horrific act that has shaken us all,” he said.
According to Louisiana investigators, the girl was at one point sexually assaulted by her mother’s boyfriend at their home in Thibodaux, and when her mother learned about it, she doused the teen in flammable liquid and set her on fire. The girl’s mom blamed her for the assaults, not her boyfriend, investigators said.
It was February, around Mardi Gras, and the 10-year-old told police she “was awakened to the sight of the victim’s body on fire, as (her mother) stood over her bed with a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a lighter.”
The 15-year-old had third- and fourth-degree burns to 40% of her upper body, but her mother and her mom’s boyfriend refused to take her to a hospital, officials said. It wouldn’t be until the day of the crash that she finally received proper medical attention, deputies said.
The boyfriend also shot the girl twice, once in the face, on two separate days, according to investigators. The day after she was shot for the second time, the four people in the vehicle headed to Texas, where the boyfriend crashed while “driving recklessly,” Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Tim Soignet said during a May 16 news briefing.
The teenager was taken to a hospital for treatment, officials said. The mother is in custody in Terrebonne Parish while the boyfriend is being held in Harris County, Texas, and awaiting extradition to Louisiana.
“I feel confident as we stand here that we will get convictions and put these terrible people in jail for a long, long time, hopefully for the rest of their lives,” Terrebonne Parish District Attorney Joseph Waitz Jr. said during the briefing. “But the key word is justice. Will we ever get justice for this person? I don’t think that we can.”
The mom’s boyfriend is facing charges including attempted murder, cruelty to a juvenile and rape, officials said. He is being held without bond. The mother is also charged with attempted murder and cruelty to a juvenile, as well as domestic abuse battery and child endangerment, and her bond is set at $1 million.