Adoptive parents of a 13-year-old boy in Indiana have been arrested on charges that they punished the child by making him stay in a camper outside the house for up to 10 days at a time without a toilet. They then left the child at a psychiatric hospital and refused to pick him up when he was released.
Patricia and Richard Heitz were arrested on Wednesday and charged with two counts of neglect of a dependent, which means leaving or severely confining a dependent. Law&Crime looked at the records and found that both charges are true.
Law&Crime got a copy of a probable cause document that says the Department of Child Services (DCS) started looking into the parents after getting a report on July 5, 2024, that the victim was being abused and neglected. He and his two younger brothers “get ‘whoopings’ with belts and paddles on their buttocks,” the report said.
To punish the victim, it was said that they had to “eat lumpy oatmeal with vinegar” and sleep “outside in the family’s camper during the winter months with no working heat or utilities.”
Related: On July 6, the Heitz family took the victim to the Memorial Epworth Center, a psychiatric hospital for 13-year-olds and older people. The victim was put on hold for one week.
That night, the boy’s parents told DCS that his mental health had “gotten worse” over the past six months and that they “didn’t want him around the other two kids in the house because he was “violent.”
The parents said they didn’t hurt their child physically and that all of their kids had slept in the camper at some point, so he was “in no danger.” Each parent also said they didn’t want the victim to come back home and “acknowledged the consequences of refusing” to do so.
Even though the other two kids in the house said their parents didn’t hurt them physically, they said the victim made them feel “unsafe.”
The victim told a child services detective that same day that he didn’t like his adoptive parents, but he did agree that they were “good people.” He also said again that he was beaten and made to sleep in the van.
There were more claims of negligence against the Heitzes on July 12 and 13 because the victim had been released from the hospital and they refused to pick him up.
The statement says, “Richard and Patricia knew what would happen if they did that, but they still didn’t make other plans.” “Patricia said she had to protect the other kids as an excuse.”
The victim’s parents said he needed more help than they could give, but they hadn’t tried to get him into therapy or get him medicine to control his behavior. They told him again that they would not let him back into the house.
The statement says Patricia told Richard, ‘There’s nothing you can do about it,’ she meant to end their parental rights. “Plus, Patricia said she and Richard had already thought of what would happen to the other two kids if they were arrested.”
In a later interview with a forensic professional, the victim said that he or she had been beaten and deprived of food while working hard outside for up to eight hours at a time as punishments. He also said that he had to stay in the van by himself for more than a week twice when it snowed.
The statement says, “[The victim] said the camper didn’t have power or heat.” “He said there was a bathroom, but he couldn’t use it. Instead, he had to carry things in grocery bags.”
Both of the Heitzes were freed after putting up $15,000 bail. The couple went to court on Friday morning for their first hearing.
