Couple arrested after toddler found barricaded in dark closet: Florida
Officers with the Port St. Lucie Police Department (PSLPD) were responding to the home around 4 p.m.
Wednesday in reference to a Department of Children and Families (DCF) investigation, when they say they found a closet door blocked from the outside by gates, headboards, pieces of wood, and chairs tied together, trapping the toddler inside the closet without any light.
After making that discovery, officers arrested the child’s parents, James Spiess and Rebecca Worthington.
Both of them are facing child neglect charges.
PSLPD Chief Richard Del Toro is shocked at what his officers found inside the home along Burgundy Ln. Wednesday.
“You wouldn’t even treat a dog like this. You wouldn’t even put a dog inside of a closet and lock them in there, so I don’t know what makes you think you can do that to a child,” the chief stated.
“A two-year-old, with no coping skills, looks to mom and dad to be their protector, and to be treated this way, is just horribleboth admitted to smoking marijuana, being out of work, I believe the father is on disability.
So, I’m not sure they have the skillset necessary to take care of children.”
Four children between the ages of two months and three-years-old were found in that house.
Police say the two-month-old had such severe diaper rash that it required hospitalization.
The investigation also revealed the newborn had not seen a doctor since birth.
CBS12 News tried to get answers from someone arriving at the home Thursday afternoon, but received no clarity.
“Nope, I don’t know nothing,” said a woman who pulled into the driveway of the home in question.
The woman then entered the home through the front door.
