ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A Virginia mother and her boyfriend were charged with child cruelty after police found two young children chained to furniture in an Alexandria apartment.
According to a spokesperson for the Fairfax County Police Department, officers were called to the 6700 block of Tower Drive around 6 p.m. for a report of child neglect. When officers got to the scene, they found two children who were chained up.
The couple told police they would chain the 9-year-old boy and his 7-year-old sibling by the ankle to “‘scare them’ so they wouldn’t leave the apartment,” according to court charging documents in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
According to court records, the 9-year-old borrowed a cellphone from a roommate in the apartment, who is not charged. The 9-year-old used the phone to send a photo of his chained foot to an older sister, who called 911.
Police said when they knocked on the apartment door they could hear chains rattling in the apartment.
The children were treated for injuries thought to be non-life-threatening.
Investigators arrested 46-year-old Wendi Del Cid Rodriguez. She was charged with two counts of child neglect, two counts of child cruelty and two counts of abduction. Franklin Viera Guevara, 29, was also arrested on the same charges.
The police department said Del Cid Rodriguez has since been released on bond. Guevara, meanwhile, remains in the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center. He is being held on no bond.
