11 Children Removed from Sex Offender's Home After Some Were Found Tied to Beds

Texas authorities said on February 21, 2012, that they had removed 11 children from a crowded home in Dayton — about 30 miles northeast of Houston — where a registered sex offender lived, after finding eight of them confined in a small, dark bedroom, with some tied to their beds.

The children, ranging in age from 5 months to 11 years and believed to all be related, had been living alongside 10 adults in a one-story, 1,700-square-foot house, according to Child Protective Services spokeswoman Gwen Carter. Three of the children were 5 or older, and none of them were enrolled in school.

The raid followed a January visit in which authorities found two 2-year-old children tied to a bed. Court documents described a legally blind 5-year-old girl found "in a restraint on a filthy mattress," appearing "to be in a daze." Another child had a black eye and a knocked-out tooth. Two of the children showed symptoms of what authorities feared was pneumonia and were taken to a children's hospital. All were placed in foster homes.

The adults told investigators they tied the children during sleep or daytime naps "for safety," and — most disturbingly to investigators — none of them said they saw anything wrong with the arrangement. A month after the raid, authorities were still trying to determine how the children were related and why they were there.

One resident was Mark E. Marsh III, a registered sex offender convicted in Michigan 15 years earlier of criminal sexual conduct with a 15-year-old girl. A neighbor, Wayne Hardin, told reporters he had often seen at least eight cars parked outside but never suspected so many people were living there: "We didn't have a clue." A court hearing was scheduled for March 9 to determine the children's placement.

Sources

• Texas Authorities Remove 11 Children From Home Strapped to Beds — Christian Post / AP