How Could You? Hall of Shame-Will Earnest and Wylie Sue Cater

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

This is a missed 2014 case.

From Covington, Tennessee, “adoptive parents Will Earnest Cater, 53, and his wife 43-year-old Wylie Sue Cater have been charged with false imprisonment and three counts of aggravated child abuse.”

“Three children have been rescued from a home in Tennessee after being found locked in bedrooms with portable toilets.

The two girls, aged 12 and 17, and a 14-year-old boy were only allowed to leave to go to school, the Tipton County Sheriff’s Office reported on Friday. The children had been held this way for six months in order to ‘discipline them’.

The girls were locked in a room with the windows screwed shut and a portable toilet at the home in Covington. The teenage boy was held in a separate shed with no heating, electricity or running water.
They were locked in the rooms on returning from school and fed in the dank spaces. There were two working bathrooms inside the residence.

The children had been adopted by Will Cater in the county in 2010 after he moved to the area from New York.

In a statement to MailOnline on Friday, Tipton County Sheriff’s Office described the deplorable conditions that the children were being held in.

The statement read: ‘There was exposed wiring throughout the shed. The lighting in the living space was a mechanics work lamp on an electrical cord.

‘The boy would be allowed to come inside the residence in the mornings for breakfast before going to school and returned to the shed after school. ‘

Investigators said that the teenage boy was seriously emotionally disturbed. The children have now been placed in foster care and are being medically evaluated. Police are still investigating for further signs of physical or sexual abuse.

The police had been tipped off to the children’s abuse by a phone call from the 17-year-old girl on January 27 and by the children’s school.

The Caters admitted to the abuse of the children and have been arraigned at Tipton County General Sessions Court. The adoptive parents are being held on $100,000 bond.”

Adoptive parents ‘imprisoned three children in bedrooms with portable toilets for SIX MONTHS’[Daily Mail 1/31/14 by Louise Boyle]

“DCS said it’s had “no previous involvement with this family.”

The children’s friends said they were nice and quiet. They said they rode the bus with them every day, but not once, did they ever mention what was happening.

Detectives interviewed the couple who admitted to their roles in the confinement and treatment to the children.

The couple remains in custody pending their arraignment in Tipton County General Sessions Court.”

http://wreg.com/2014/01/31/sheriff-children-imprisoned-in-tipton-county-home/

[WREG 1/31/14 by GEORGE BROWN AND JESSICA GERTLER]

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