LAKE CHARLES, LA - A Lake Charles stepmother and father are facing serious charges of child abuse. 27-year-old Jaime Day and her husband, 30-year-old Murray Day were arrested after a concerned citizen led authorities knocking on the door of their south Lake Charles home. Inside the home at 2841 Southern Ridge Drive, a Calcasieu deputy found a nine-year-old boy living like an animal. A dog leash found tied to two separate door knobs to keep him locked in his room. Weighing only 38 pounds, the boy was found laying on a filthy foam pallet on a box spring, with a sheet saturated in blood and urine. The boy told investigators he wasn't allowed to eat with the family, but instead forced to watch them - sometimes eating his own feces and urine to survive. He also suffered hypothermia from malnutrition and second degree burns on his back from a sock that was heated up with rice. The boy was dressed in a T-shirt and wearing a diaper with multiple bruises on his face and body. "We are very fortunate that we are not investigating a murder case in my opinion," said Sheriff Tony Mancuso. The investigation reveals the majority of the alleged abuse was at the hands of the boy's stepmother Jaime Day, she's now charged with 25 counts of cruelty to a juvenile. Her bond is set at 5.5-million dollars. Her husband, Murray Day, turned himself in Tuesday evening and also faces five counts of cruelty to a juvenile. His bond is set at two million dollars. While Sheriff Mancuso says the evidence ...
By Juan Carlos Rodriguez Journal Staff Writer The house is empty now, and it's hard to tell from the outside that a short while ago 17 children lived there among urine and feces, in dire need of medical care and with no food in the refrigerator or cupboards. An empty box of diapers poking out of a garbage can and a child's chalky scrawl on the wall next to the front door are the only traces that remain of a large, extended family that has now been separated. The children, ranging in age from 3 months to 9 years, lived there with six adults � five women and a man � who are related and who were arrested Monday. Veronica Sarinana, 25, Leonard Pe�a, 30, Nancy Pe�a, 28, Frances Pe�a, 24, and Mara Pe�a, 21, were charged with child abuse after a Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office investigation found "deplorable" conditions at the home. Another woman living at the house, Monica Pe�a, was arrested for failure to appear in court but not for child abuse. A criminal complaint said that on Oct. 4, upon arriving at the home at the corner of Tapia and San Ygnacio SW, deputies found the 17 children dirty and without food. The complaint said there was a "strong odor of urine and feces" in the house and a nonworking toilet was full of human waste. The children were malnourished, in need of medicine for untreated sinus infections, and suffering from such poor dental health that some of their teeth had rotted to the gums. The complaint said several of the children had been disenrolled ...
