Couple Kept Autistic Relative Locked In Home For 2 Years: Police

A Racine couple is facing felony charges for allegedly keeping an adult relative with autism locked in the basement, giving him food through a hole in the wall and forcing him to use a bucket as a toilet.

A relative of the woman, who was charged Wednesday, called Racine police to say the victim was locked in the basement of the home on Holmes Avenue, and was being "shocked with a dog collar," according to the criminal complaint. That complaint prompted police on June 4 to do a welfare check on the man, who has Asperger syndrome, a form of autism, as well as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the complaint said.

The Racine Journal Times is reporting that the victim was the woman's adult son, although the relationship was not in the criminal complaint.

According to the complaint filed in Racine County Circuit Court:

When police came to the house, the woman told officers the man was downstairs, but she needed to get the keys to unlock the basement door. When asked why she needed the keys, she told the police “because he’s locked in the basement.”

The woman’s boyfriend, who is listed as a co-defendant in the complaint but has not been formally charged, told the police the man had been living with the couple for more than two years. For the first year, he stayed in an upstairs bedroom, which had a lock on the door so that the man couldn’t leave his room. That room had been locked sometimes for a day or two, and sometimes up to a week.

After the first year, the man was moved to the basement, which also had a deadbolt lock on it. The couple gave the man food, which was delivered through a hole in the wall and given a bucket to use for the bathroom.

The woman’s boyfriend told police that his girlfriend kept the key to the basement, which was locked from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. The unfinished basement had no emergency exit windows or smoke detectors, and the basement door didn’t have any doorknobs. The man slept in a “dirty twin bed with no sheets,” but he had a blanket on the floor.

The woman told the police that the door to the basement was locked every day, also during the times when she had to take her granddaughter to school between 12:30 and 3:30 p.m.

The woman was charged Wednesday with a felony count of intentionally causing an individual at risk to abuse – likely to cause bodily harm. She is expected to appear in court on July 17.  If convicted, she faces up to 1.5 years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine.

Patch is not naming the woman to protect the identity of the victim.