SAPULPA, Okla. — An 11-year-old boy from Sapulpa is being treated at the hospital after police say they found him malnourished, injured, and hiding in a dumpster at night.
Police arrested a couple - Stephanie Denton and Shawn Deatherage - on child abuse charges.
The boy claimed he busted through his bedroom screen window to escape on May 19 from his home near Hickory and Teel Road. Shawn Detherage and Stephanie Denton lived there with her 11-year-old son.
Sapulpa police say they found the boy hiding in a dumpster weighing 58 pounds and shirtless. He had a black eye and was wearing oversized shorts. The gas station was less than a quarter of a mile from the house.
The boy later told investigators the couple would lock him in his room and force him to sleep in a closet.
It's all things the community is up in arms about.
"They should not have kids if they don't want them," said Emmett Serugg of Sapulpa. "That's the way I feel."
Investigators say the boy had bruises and cigarette burns all over his body. When speaking with the mother, investigators say she claimed the boy's injuries were self-inflicted and he was skinny because everyone in the family was thin.
Serugg couldn't help but praise the Sapulpa PD for being in the right place at the right time.
"We got great police officers. I can't say anything bad about them because they do their job," Serugg said.
Denton and Deatherage were booked into the Creek County Jail for child abuse and neglect.
The officer that found the boy took him to the hospital, where he remains.
Neighbors tell 2 News off-camera that the couple who lived at the home was quiet and rarely saw them outside.
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