A Pennsylvania mother and grandmother were arrested this week and charged with the abuse of a 12-year-old girl they allegedly restrained in her bed and fed cat food.
Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce said the girl weighed 50 pound when she was rescued from her abusers, The Citizen’s Voice reported.
Amanda Lynn Gregorio, 35, and Stacey Ann Louder, 52, were charged with aggravated assault of a child under 13, conspiracy, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, endangering the welfare of children, recklessly endangering another person, simple assault, and tampering with evidence on Monday, months after the little girl was removed from their custody and placed with Luzerne County Children, Youth and Families.
The agency took custody of the girl on September 4, days after she was brought to a hospital with seizure-like symptoms. Investigators found that Gregorio, her mother, had intentionally overmedicated the girl with Benadryl and melatonin prior to the incident, according to an arrest report.
Medical staff said the child had abrasions, bruises, and scars from restraints.
The arrest report said that the girl told investigators she would be restrained in the bed for long periods of time and had to defecate and urinate in the bed.
Gregorio reportedly told a witness that she fed the girl cat food and blamed her own mother, Louder, for “making her” put the child in restraints.
Investigators found that the suspects had installed a surveillance camera in the girl’s room to make sure she didn’t get out of the restraints.
The arrest report says that at one point, Gregorio hit the girl in the head with a broom, causing a cut Louder closed up with glue. The girl showed up at school with a black eye at about that time and told school officials she walked into a wall. After that, she stopped attending a brick and mortar school and attended an online school.
Gregorio and Louder were ordered jailed on Monday and given $125,000 bails each. A preliminary hearing is set for May 6.
