Cages really ‘cribs’: mom Sick Wis. parents are charged
A Wisconsin woman accused of keeping children in cages told cops that the sleeping arrangement was more like “glorified cribs.”
Amy and Travis Headrick were each hit with nine felony counts Monday after investigators found they kept minors in makeshift cages, including a horse trough, at a home in the village of Melvina. The couple had been arrested Friday.
A baby-sitter had taken a photo of the conditions, and showed it to her mother, who passed it on to the police.
Five children, four adopted and one biological, were found in the house. A 10-year-old child was found zip-tied in a horse trough, which was described by Amy Headrick as a “bathtub, yes that is what it is made for, for horses.”
After an officer said “zip-tied shut,” she responded, “Yes, yes, I am not going to lie to you about that,” according to a criminal complaint obtained by the Daily News.
Amy Headrick described the trough as a “washable membrane,” explaning that the child “would defecate himself,” according to the complaint.
“I didn’t want to put him in a bathtub and make him sleep in the bathroom, so I thought this was something I could wash and take out for him,” she told investigators. She added that the child had once “almost fell out of the two-story window.”
An 11-year-old was found locked in a cage, and a 12-year-old girl was found in a locked room. The other children in the home were able to move freely. A disabled person was also living in the home.
The 11-year-old child had been known to choke his little brother, according to Amy Headrick.
“At night when I am sleeping at 10, I don’t know what’s going on,” she told cops, according to the complaint. “I don’t want them choking each other. So I just make sure they’re safe. I’m not tying them up. I’m not beating them, I don’t even spank them.”
When asked what would happen if a fire started, she said she does not consider the confinement a “cage,” but more like a “glorified crib.”
“Cribs aren’t locked,” someone with the Monroe County sheriff’s office told her. “True,” Amy Headrick responded. “Dog kennels are locked,” the investigator said.
“You’re right,” she responded. “There was a lock on it. I don’t like to classify that my kids are dogs. I was doing it for their safety. If not, we would have had a kid jump through the window with broken legs on the ground.”
Charges against the couple include reckless endangerment, child neglect and false imprisonment.