MEMPHIS, Tenn. – A husband and wife are accused of keeping their adopted son a prisoner inside their home.
Kenya and Melvin Bloomingburg have both been charged with aggravated child abuse and neglect, and for the time being lost custody of several children.
Police said they found an 8-year-old boy chained to his bedroom wall by his ankle and soaked in his own urine.
The child was taken to Le Bonheur where doctors said he had a number scars, abrasions, an ulcer on his leg, and signs of malnutrition.
Neighbors who told us last week they didn’t believe anything like that was going on at the home. Thursday, they had a change of heart.
“I just hate that for the kids and even that anything like would go on in my neighborhood,” said Barbara Johnson McKinney.
The boy told police he had been restrained several times and was even chained up in a shed in his back yard for three days.
He told officers he was also repeatedly denied food.
Zac Black used to play with the 8-year-old and knew he had been locked up before.
“We heard him saying Zac, Zac, Zac. We said come here and he said I can’t and said why and he said because I’m chained up, ” said Zac.
Zac’s mother and several other neighbors told us they called police and even tried to get their kids to take pictures of the abuse, but say nothing was ever done about it.
“Every Time the police were called she was tipped off and they never saw the kids restrained,” said Zac’s mom.
She’s relieved both parents are now charged with child abuse and the boy is out of the home.
She now prays he will be placed with a family that will love him and treat him like a child.
The boy’s sister, who made the initial 911 call to police, and three other children were also taken from the home.
We are told some of the kids are still in the neighborhood staying in a foster home.
For information on how to report child abuse, click here.
