INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Utah Mother Brandy Jaynes Arrested After 12-Year-Old Son Found Locked In Bathroom Weighing Only 30 Pounds

By Patricia Ramirez
Published on: 08:06 PST, Jan 11, 2017

Brandy Jaynes, a mother from Toquerville, Utah, has been arrested for aggravated child abuse after her son was found hidden away, suffering from extreme malnutrition and apparent neglect. According to investigators, the victim is a 12-year-old boy who weighed just 30 pounds when he was discovered. It is believed that Brandy Jaynes had kept the child locked in a dark bathroom for roughly two years.

The 12-year-old, who hasn’t been identified, was reportedly found locked in the bathroom by his father on Sunday. The relationship between Utah mother Brandy Jaynes and the child’s father remains unclear. KUTV 2 News reports that upon finding his clearly neglected and severely emaciated son locked in the bathroom, the 12-year-old’s father immediately took his son to a local hospital for evaluation and treatment.

It was on Sunday night that the child was finally examined by doctors, and it was then that it was determined that he weighed only 30 pounds. Dixie Regional Medical Center employees put in a call to Washington County law enforcement so that allegations of child abuse against 36-year-old Utah mother Brandy Jaynes could be investigated.

As The Salt Lake Tribune reports, Washington County detectives interviewed doctors and the 12-year-old’s father and learned that the door to the bathroom he had been locked in had been covered with a sheet and double-locked from the outside. The child had reportedly been given a blanket and slept on the floor. Physicians described the condition of Brandy Jaynes’ son as “the worst case they had ever seen.”

“It is one of the most horrible things I’ve ever had to see. I wish I could unsee it.”

Doctors added that the boy was incapable of standing on his own and weighed as much as an average two-year-old. Allegedly, the Utah mother allowed her child to become so malnourished that it is expected that he will have to be hospitalized for at least three weeks.

After interviewing the child’s father and doctors, detectives were able to secure a search warrant allowing them to search the home of Utah mother Brandy Jaynes. When they got there, they confirmed that the father’s account of the scene, a scene that detectives described as “something out of a horror movie.”

“It would be my definition of a torture room.”

According to Washington County sheriff’s Lt. David Crouse, the small bathroom floor was overrun by “what appeared to be feces,” and the toilet was so full of feces “that you could not see any water.” The sheet covering the bathroom door was there, as described by Brandy Jaynes’ son’s father, and it appeared that the 12-year-old had been forcibly kept in the dark. The light switch was reportedly covered with so much duct tape that it couldn’t be turned on.

Inside the shower, investigators found empty cans of beans and other food, as well as spoons. According to a statement given by Utah mother Brandy Jaynes to police, she had also been attempting to feed the 12-year-old protein drinks to “get his weight up.”

Detectives also say that the dark, filthy, feces-covered bathroom was equipped with a one-way baby monitor (people could talk in, but the victim couldn’t communicate out) and a video camera with wifi.

“All the light switches were tapped into the off position. A baby monitor was setup so voices could come in but not out. So they could give instructions to the child that was in the room.

“There was fecal matter and urine on the floor, there was open cans of food, like can of beans with a spoon in it; there was also a video camera that was capable of wifi monitoring.”

When questioned by police, Brandy Jaynes allegedly told them that “her son wanted to sleep in this bathroom.” The Utah mother allegedly concurred that sometimes she did lock the 12-year-old in the disgusting, dark room. But only “for his safety when she would leave the house.”

Inexplicably, investigators discovered two other, apparently perfectly healthy, children living at the same home as Brandy Jaynes and her starving, neglected 12-year-old. The other two children are apparently the biological children of the Utah mother and siblings to her malnourished son. They have been taken into the custody of Utah Child Protective Services, and an investigation is reportedly ongoing to ensure that they, too, haven’t been the victims of abuse.

Detectives have declined to release the children’s ages, but reportedly at least one of them is “old enough to understand” what has been going on with their 12-year-old brother. Investigators claim that the two other children of Utah mother Brandy Jaynes hadn’t spoken to their brother in at least six months, not even through the bathroom door. The children reportedly told police that their 12-year-old sibling had been in the bathroom for at least a year before their mother was arrested.

On Monday, Brandy Jaynes, 36, was formally charged with second-degree felony child abuse in 5th District Court; the Utah mother is being held on a $20,000 bond and is scheduled to be back in court on January 17.

[Featured Image by Washington County Sheriff’s Department]

Share this article: Utah Mother Brandy Jaynes Arrested After 12-Year-Old Son Found Locked In Bathroom Weighing Only 30 Pounds
More from Inquisitr