A couple in Walkerton face charges of neglecting their 13 year-old son.
Police say Richard and Patricia Heitz abandoned their 13 year-old son, and also face a second charge after criminally confining him.
The couple’s two other children say they feel unsafe around the teenager.
The parents took the 13 year-old to Memorial Epworth Hospital, saying they needed help managing his mental health. The probable cause document stated that DCS were informed in July that the child was the victim of neglect by his parents. He was forced to sleep in an unheated camper as punishment in the winter, and made to dig holes.
The couple refused to come and claim him when he was discharged from the hospital.
2 comments
DCS should have disclosed that he was a threat And menace to society when Rich n Trisha were going thru the proper channels to foster and or adopt him not put other kids in harms way. DCS should be charged!
Yes, people don’t have any comprehension of what these kids can put families through. There is very little help available once you adopt in Indiana. DCS won’t even talk to you or offer any services once you have adopted. You are completely on your own. If the child is young, you have no idea what you’re going to be dealing with years down the road when they grow into strong and violent teenagers. You hope that you can help them to heal, but they don’t always want to heal. You hope that providing a loving, stable, consistent home with lots of structure will help get them on the right track. But it doesn’t always work that way.
I don’t know this family; they may be monsters for all I know. But there are plenty of great parents out there who struggle just to function as a family with some their adopted children. This is not uncommon.