Malnourished Boy Found Hiding Behind Dumpster; Parents Arrested In Sapulpa

Sapulpa Police arrested a couple after their severely malnourished 11-year-old son was found with a black eye, hiding behind a dumpster at a gas station.

Officers say Stephanie Denton and Shawn Deatherage locked the boy in a closet, but he broke out and ran away from home. Investigators say the boy weighed only 58 pounds and should weigh twice that. They say he had bruises all over his body and had cigarette burns on his arms.

A Sapulpa Police officer found the boy hiding behind a dumpster in the middle of the night. They say the boy was wearing a pair of oversized shorts.

"He ran away and he was very hungry, and so he was at the dumpster looking for food. The officer took him to a convenience store in town to get some more food,” said Captain Mike Sole with Sapulpa Police.

The boy told investigators he was forced to sleep in a closet, and his parents would lock him in there. They say the boy was forced to urinate in a soda bottle. Police took the boy to a hospital where investigators say they found more than a dozen injuries on his body.

"He had a black eye. He had bruising to the inside and outside of one of his ears. He had cigarette burns on his arm,” said Captain Sole. "He wasn't wearing a shirt. You could see his bones through his skin. I was told whenever he did put a shirt on, you could see his heartbeat through the shirt. He was that skinny."

Investigators say Deatherage beat the boy, burned him with cigarettes, and dragged the boy across the carpet, causing burns on his back, all as punishment. Police say the boy's mother, Stephanie Denton, told officers the injuries were self-inflicted and said the boy was skinny because everyone in the family is skinny.

Captain Sole says the officer who found the boy went above and beyond to help.

"Call it luck, call it divine intervention, for some reason, she found him, and absolutely her finding him probably saved his life,” said Sole.

Deatherage and Denton were booked into the Creek County Jail for child abuse and neglect. The boy has been in the hospital for five days and could be there another couple of weeks, but he is improving.