DETROIT – The curious case of young Charlie Bothuell V continues to have as many twists and turns today as when the boy went missing last June.
First, young Charlie, then 12 years old, went missing for 11 days.
Federal, state and local investigators were searching for him, including two K9 searches of his father's Detroit townhome.
After 11 days, and with police serving a search warrant on the home, the boy was found in the basement.
He told authorities he was there the entire time, baffling investigators who had searched the basement multiple times looking for him. Then came criminal charges against young Charlie's father, Charlie Bothuell IV, and his step-mother, Monique Dillard-Bothuell.
The father is accused of striking his son with a PVC pipe. His step-mother is accused of holding the boy captive in the basement.
Tuesday marked the ninth day of testimony at a preliminary hearing to decide if Charlie's parents will stand trial on charges of torture and child abuse.
Charlie has testified that he was ordered to the basement by his stepmother when he stopped one of his rigorous workouts. He says he was afraid of her and never called for help before he was discovered by police. The couple's lawyers say Charlie is lying.
Local 4 has obtained the typed statements of Charlie Bothuell IV and Monique Dillard-Bothuell detailing, in their own words, their version of what happened last summer.
The couple had volunteered complete the questionnaire at a Detroit police station. According to the statements, the couple didn't know they were being videotaped.
Click here to read the statements
Also, while the two were with police, authorities were serving a search warrant on the Bothuell townhome, looking for "trace evidence."
Still, a Detroit police investigator testified that the father and step-mother were not then considered suspects in Charlie's disappearance.
"My son ran away again and I want your help (law enforcement) in finding him ASAP," Charlie Bothuell IV said.
Bothuell urged police to keep up media coverage of his son's case in hopes of finding him: "Have myself and my wife do lie detector test immediately so that we can silence some of the people automatically think that the parents had something to do with it."
The father admitted that his son was having behavioral problems. Bothuell said his son was setting fires in the rear hallway of the townhouse community and that his son had tried to "burn the house down" on two occasions.
When asked by police what may have made the 12-year-old leave, his father said that he had told his son that he would have to send him to a boarding school or military school.
"If Charlie ran away again, it was because he was afraid of possibly having to go to boarding school if his behavior didn't improve in line with the academic and health gains that he had made, that pressure was coming directly from me," Charlie Bothuell IV said.
Monique Dillard-Bothuell was the last person to be with the boy before he went missing. She said that she snapped a photo of the family's elliptical machine that day because the boy did 3,008 revolutions, instead of the 4,000 he was mandated by his father to do.
His father admitted to disciplining Charlie, hitting him, poking him with a PVC pipe.
Monique Dillard-Bothuell wrote in her questionnaire that she was having trouble with Charlie.
She wrote:
(1) Charlie did not want to follow the rules
(2) Charlie did not want to listen to me in regards to the rules
(3) Charlie wanted to make his own rules where he could do as he pleased w/out consequence
(4) Charlie was tired of being homeschooled.
(5) Charlie wanted to live back w/his mother.
When asked by police if she knew any reasons why Charlie would be missing, she said, "Yes, inasmuch that he did not want to talk to his father in regards to shortcutting his workout."
33484102