Officers serving a warrant in Ohio could have never envisioned the horrifying conditions they’d find when they arrived on the scene; plus, a California mom is sentenced to jail after faking her kidnapping.
Officers serving warrant shocked to discover children in a horrifying scene
Officers showed up at a house to serve a search warrant, but they found something horrifying they never expected and one nothing could have prepared them for.
The Hocking County Sheriff’s Office in Ohio sent deputies to serve a search warrant on an assault case at a home on Sunday.
When the cops entered the home, what they saw was like a scene out of a horror film. The victims were two toddlers. They found a three-year-old inside a cage that had been secured using zip ties. The cage was filled with bugs. It had soiled bedding and a cup of spoiled milk.
A second child, a 2-year-old, was found wandering around the house “holding a methamphetamine pipe,” according to a news release by the Sheriff’s office.
The parents of the two children, Franklin “TJ” Varney and Megan Smith, ran from the house, cops say, “due to their involvement with the sexual assault investigation.”
However, the children’s grandmother, Ella Webb, had legal custody and was arrested by the officers, WSOC-TV reported.
Hocking County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Caleb J. Moritz said in a statement, “I very, very strongly encourage Mr. Varney and Ms. Smith to immediately surrender themselves to law enforcement.”
“If they chose to run from their responsibilities, as they did tonight, the Hocking County Sheriff’s Office will tirelessly leverage every local, state, and federal resource available to bring these two to justice,” the sheriff added.
The children were placed in emergency foster care.
California mom is sentenced to jail after faking her kidnapping in major fraud hoax
Back in 2016, California mom Sherri Papini claimed she had been abducted at gunpoint while out jogging in her Redding neighborhood by two armed, masked Hispanic women. Papini claimed the women had tortured her, branded her, and kept her chained in a bedroom for more than three weeks, People reported.
But after an investigation, things weren’t adding up. Authorities learned Papini had been hiding out with an ex-boyfriend in Southern California instead. The kidnapping had been a hoax.
At her trial last April, Papini, 39, pleaded guilty to one count each of lying to a federal officer and mail fraud for staging a kidnapping. The charges weren’t from faking her abduction but rather lies she continued to tell years afterward. The indictment had included 35 counts.
On Monday, Papini was sentenced on Monday to 18 months in prison, ten months more than what prosecutors had asked for, NBC reported. Papini must surrender by November 8.
The judge also ordered Papini to pay $309,902 in restitution for losses incurred by the California Victim Compensation Board, the Social Security Administration, the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
After serving prison time, Papini will be under 36 months of supervised release.
