Two charged with child abuse, neglect after runaways flee from their foster parents

Luara Schiermeier, Staff Writer
Posted 7/17/19

VIENNA — Two people were in the Maries County Jail over the weekend charged with felony child abuse and neglect charges following allegations from their two foster children that they were not …

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Two charged with child abuse, neglect after runaways flee from their foster parents

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VIENNA — Two people were in the Maries County Jail over the weekend charged with felony child abuse and neglect charges following allegations from their two foster children that they were not treated properly while under their protection.

Charles Fales, 59, and Cheryl “Lynn” Fales, 55, both of 18361 MCR 436, St. James, have been charged by Maries County Prosecuting Attorney Anthony “Tony” Skouby of two counts of the class D felony of abuse or neglect of a child, no sexual contact. On Monday, Maries County Associate Circuit Judge Kerry Rowden set each of their bonds at $10,000 cash or surety. 

The investigation began on July 3, 2019, when the Maries County Sheriff’s Office received a report from Lynn Fales about two juvenile foster children who lived with her who she said ran away. The two boys were said to have a water jug and a walking stick and their clothing was described. With the assistance of the public, the two boys were located safely and were interviewed by sheriff’s deputies. 

The story they told the deputies was that they had stolen items from a neighbor’s property and residence and they were going to jail for the crime so they ran away. 

In the investigator’s report, it stated Lynn Fales admitted to telling the juveniles they would be charged with crimes and have to go to jail. Once in jail, she told them, they would be beaten up by other jail inmates who would steal their food from them and also force the boys to have sexual intercourse with the men in the jail. The boys told the deputy they ran away to avoid being sexually abused by inmates in the county jail. 

During further interviews with Sheriff’s Office staff, Detective Kenneth Kilmer and Lieutenant Scott John, it was determined the juveniles had been living in a tent in the back yard of the Fales residence since June 10. The children were provided a breakfast sandwich, conducted manual labor, fed raw hot dogs for lunch, conducted more manual labor, then were provided more raw hot dogs or left over food for dinner. After dinner, they were required to perform more manual labor. The manual labor included hand picking weeds, picking up two five-gallon buckets of rocks per child, mowing grass, and other assigned tasks. 

When asked if they were allowed inside the residence they reported they were not. The juveniles said Lynn Fales told them they would be considered intruders if they entered the home and would “meet the barrel of her gun”. During interviews with Fales she admitted to informing the children they were not allowed in the residence and they would be considered intruders if they did. 

Both the juveniles and Fales admitted the children’s hygiene was facilitated by Fales providing a bar of soap to them and after they soaped up she would wash them off with well water from a garden hose. The juveniles were also required to utilize the yard when needing use the toilet and they used leaves from trees to collect their excrement and clean themselves. Their excrement was thrown over the yard fence into the sewage lagoon, which was just over the fence from their tent. When asked, Fales said she didn’t think to provide them with toilet paper.

This punishment began June 10 after the juveniles were discovered to be taking food from the Fales residence without permission, which the Fales considered to be stealing. When asked about the punishments, both Charles and Lynn Fales admitted to being complicit in the punishment. They also said the juveniles were not allowed to get food or drink from the family refrigerator without permission.

During a search of the family home and property, it was determined the tent was in a fenced in area which had a “hot wire” along the top of the fence, there was a towel draped over the deck railing Chuck Fales admitted was used for “bathing” the juveniles, the trash barrel near the tent contained hot dog packages and two five-gallon buckets were in the back yard.

The juveniles were removed from the home on July 4 by Maries County Sheriff’s Deputies and placed into state protective custody with the Missouri State Children’s Division. Sheriff Chris Heitman said the boys had been living with the Fales, their foster parents, for several years.

Charles and Lynn Fales are scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Judge Rowden’s court in early September.