Utah’s PROVO (KSL.com) On Wednesday, a couple from Provo was taken into custody on charges of gravely mistreating their kids.
Both 22-year-old Rachelle Southwick and 25-year-old Darren Justin Berriel were arrested for serious child abuse; Southwick was charged with one offense, while Berriel was charged with seven.
According to the police, the couple’s kids were already taken out of the house and questioned in June.
One youngster revealed that she saw Rachelle stomp on her sibling’s arm, causing her to sprain it. A police booking affidavit states that the watching youngster saw her brother sobbing “bloody murder.” Additionally, a child revealed that Rachelle had bitten their back with her fangs, causing them to bleed.
According to the affidavit, Southwick also used a screwdriver to stab a youngster.
In addition, one child remembered that Berriel had once locked them in a room for days without food or access to the restroom, punched them in the face, knocked out a tooth, rendered them unconscious, and stomped on their back inflicting pain. According to the affidavit, the boy claimed that he had to urinate on the sealed room’s floor.
There were also reports of Darren choking a child with a pillow, beating them with a black rod on their legs, leaving tiger stripe marks on their lower extremities, and striking them in the face and neck with a belt. According to the arrest report, the boy reportedly claimed to have been treated like a dog, placed in a kennel, and forced to eat dog food.
According to the affidavit, investigators gathered the children’s medical records and discovered that one youngster had lost a tooth close to another that had been damaged, which the child claimed Darren had caused with pliers. Two screwdrivers with blood on them were among the evidence found in the house when police executed a search warrant there on Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear how many children were taken from the residence or how old they were.
