Two suspects have been named, and more information has been made public after police said earlier this month that they found two “abnormally skinny” children knocking on a Myrtle Beach door.
Two counts of kidnapping, three counts of putting a child in danger or harm without permission, and two counts of abuse have been brought against Aleesha Michele Washington and Davon Lamont Moore.
According to the case report, police were called to the 6300 block of Bay Road around 12:30 a.m. on May 7 to a report of children being left alone. When police came, a woman told them that she heard someone knocking on the door of the building and then saw two kids at the window.
The report says that when she opened the door, one of the boys told her they were hungry and cold. People said they had no idea where they were or who had dropped them off. The killers told the police that they were dropped off at Dunkin’ Donuts some time the night before they were found.
After being dropped off, the victims told police that they didn’t know the man, but that he was “the one who kept them locked in a room for extended periods during the previous summer,” according to the incident report.
The report says that both of the victims had sores and scars all over their bodies, mostly on their backs. It also said that one of the victims had cuts on his chest, leg, and foot, and that he might have an infection. The other victim was said to have cuts on his arm, shin, and knee, and he may have had a skin infection.
The report says that when the cops asked the victims what they ate, they said they were given a peanut butter sandwich every one to two days.
The story goes on to say that Moore and Washington were met by police. Moore allegedly told police that he and someone else, whose name is not included in the report, had both children in their care for about five years. There were a total of nine children in the home.
Arrest papers give us more information about where the kids are living.
Warrants say Moore and Washington would “verbally or electronically” force one of the victims to lock his adopted brothers in their room and not let them use the bathroom or eat.
According to another warrant, they would lock one of the victims in a room and “deprive him of basic needs and excessively physically punish him.” This would have left him permanently disfigured and unable to function, and he would have died if he hadn’t been treated.
A victim was locked in a room all day without food, clothes, or access to the bathroom, and Washington and Moore beat him “beyond reasonable corporal punishment,” according to the warrants.
From December 2023 to May 2024, Moore and Washington regularly locked one of the victims in his bedroom and tied his hands and feet together with zip ties or other restraints. No one could get into the room.
Moore and Washington are still both being held at the J. Reuben Long Detention Center, according to online records. The South Carolina Department of Social Services (DSS) stated that they are also looking into what happened with the police.