'No sweet and innocent kid': Boy chained to porch with dead chicken around his neck killed the bird to provoke punishment from 'loving' parents, foster brother claims

  • Wanda Sue Larson and Dorian Lee Harper have been charged with multiple counts of intentional child abuse inflicting serious injury, false imprisonment and animal cruelty
  • Their 11-year-old foster child was found handcuffed to their front porch with a dead chicken around his neck on Friday
  • But their 20-year-old adopted son claims he grew up in 'loving and caring home' and the boy suffers from severe psychological issues
  • He said the child had a history of being cruel to animals and probably hurt or killed the chicken, which led to the controversial discipline

By James Nye and Helen Pow

PUBLISHED: 11:51 EST, 19 November 2013 | UPDATED: 12:51 EST, 19 November 2013


An 11-year-old boy found chained to a porch with a dead chicken around his neck is no 'sweet innocent kid' and likely harmed the bird to provoke the bizarre punishment, his foster brother said today.

The 20-year-old, who didn't want to be named, said his adopted parents Wanda Larson and Dorian Harper provided a 'loving and caring home' but the boy has severe psychological issues, including a history of being cruel to animals.

He said his parents' punishment, though he didn't condone it, was a last ditch attempt to control the child's behavior and protect the rest of the household.

Scroll down for video

Shocking conditions: Wanda Sue Larson and Dorian Lee Harper were arrested Friday after a sheriff's deputy found the shivering 11-year-old boy

Loving home: The 20-year-old son of Wanda Sue Larson and Dorian Lee Harper said on Tuesday that his parents provided a 'loving and caring home,' pictured

'Everyone says this is some sweet innocent kid when in actuality, he is not. He has been to counseling, he is on numerous heavy medications, but nothing has worked,' the brother told KHOU.

Harper, an emergency room nurse, and Wanda Larson, a social worker, have been charged with intentional child abuse inflicting serious injury, false imprisonment and animal cruelty. The couple have been jailed and, at a brief court appearance Monday, their bond was set at $500,000 each.

The brother said he believes the chicken around the neck was supposed to 'shame the child.'

 

More...

'There has to be something going on, between that child and that chicken,' he said. 'He either, one, didn't feed it and it died, or two, either he was out there harassing the chicken. He may have killed the chicken. This child has been known to be cruel to animals.'

He said the controversial discipline was his father's doing, as his mother, who would have put a stop to it, wasn't home at the time.

The brother explained the 11-year-old, who had lived at the home since he was six, was a problem child who was underweight because of a health problem, not because he was being mistreated.

'He would sneak out into the garage take raw meat out of the freezer, let it thaw overnight and next day go out there and eat it raw,' the man, who moved out of the home two years ago, when he turned 18, told KHOU. 'He has severe psychological issues.'

Union County sheriff's office says it appears the 11-year-old boy found handcuffed to a porch with a dead chicken around his neck was routinely handcuffed in the home.

Charged: Wanda Sue Larson was arrested and charged Friday after a sheriff happened to stumble across the boy on the porch

'He was not allowed to carry his own lunch box because would eat what food is in his lunch and then, throw the lunch box away and say he didn't have lunch for the day.'

Union County Sheriff deputies plan to interview the other four children to get a clearer view of their living environment. But the brother insisted his parents cared for the children, all of whom are adopted except for the 11-year-old.

'Everyone assumed all five children in the home have been abused, that is not accurate. You ask all four of the children, they will say they lived in a loving and caring home,' he said.

The account contradicts claims from the 11-year-old's relatives who say they have tried for years to get DSS to look into the allegations of abuse.

Union County Sheriff Animal Services were at the house early this week gathering the property's remaining animals, including an estimated 75 fowl (chicken, ducks, guineas and peacock) three horses, three donkeys, two llamas, eight dogs and a hog.

The news comes after it was revealed the boy was routinely handcuffed to a piece of steel inside the farm house in Union Country by his foster parents, who were preventing him from running away.

Police in North Carolina have released more information on the shocking case - including how the smell of the feces-covered house would 'take your breath away' - as neighbors come forward describing how the boy would beg them for food and, at one point, was 'purple with cold' and 'looked pitiful'.

Union

Alleged abuse: Dorian Lee Harper, pictured, was also arrested and charged with numerous offenses of abuse

Steve Mills lives on land adjacent to that of the child's foster parents. The pair also have four adopted children aged from eight to 14.

All five have been placed in care outside Union County because Larson is a child protective services supervisor for that county's Department of Social Services.

She has received extra charges of willful failure to discharge her duty.

Neighbor Mr Mills said in late July or early August a boy came running to his home 'crying and panicking and said ''Mister, can I have something to eat?'''

As Mr Mills' wife went to fix a sandwich, the other boys arrived.

'They told me he was the newest one (and) said they were going to take him back,' Mr Mills told Charlotte Observer. This boy 'was real small'.

'He looked the smallest one out of the bunch. ... We just assumed he was kind of scared, (being in a) new house, new area, new siblings,' said Mr Mills.

Joyce Bigham, who lives across the street, told ABC News the five children 'dress like orphans' and that the 11-year-old boy 'looked pitiful'.

Another neighbor, who asked not to be named, said a boy appeared on her porch in May 2012 'purple with cold, with no coat, saying he was hungry'.

'When asked, he said he had no mother or father and didn't know where he lived,' she said.

The woman brought him inside and fed him a sandwich.

Chicken

Dead: This lifeless chicken was found around the neck of the foster child who was handcuffed to the porch of his home in Union County, North Carolia, on Friday

'It didn’t take him 10 seconds to eat it,' she said.

He told her he was 10-years-old and that he had slept in her barn, behind her house, the night before. When she told him she would take him home, she said, he answered: 'No. I want to stay here.'

Her daughter called 911 and a sheriff's deputy came out, spoke with the boy, made a phone call, then told him she'd take him home.

'He didn't refuse. He just went with her.'

The neighbor said the deputy let her know she had returned him to his foster parents and said the man insisted the boy hadn't been missing more than 30 minutes. The neighbor believes it was the Harper-Larson home.

'I know that’s where she took him (although) you can’t see the house from the road.'

Union County Sheriff Eddie Cathey said said the condition of the house was 'terrible'.

'It was filthy, feces on the floor, holes in the wall,'  he said.

'The bathroom, you could see from outside of the hall into the bathroom. Sink was trashed. No running water. The smell took your breath away.'

All the children appeared to be suffering from malnutrition and Cathey said that the first thing law enforcement did for them was buy them pizza.

Squalor

Squalor: Authorities have described the Union City house as 'terrible', covered in feces, urine and garbage, and something 'you wouldn't want to walk through, much less live in'

Disturbing: The child services worker lives at this property with four adopted children and one foster child

Disturbing: Larson, a child services worker, lives at this property with four adopted children and the 11-year-old who was the only foster child

Authorities stumbled across the disturbing situation after a deputy, who was responding to an animal services complaint at a neighboring property, saw the 11-year-old handcuffed to the porch.

He approached the house and was confronted by Harper. The deputy asked for Harper's identification and an explanation as to why the child was handcuffed to the porch.

According to WBTV, one of the children opened the front door, releasing several large dogs who attacked the deputy. By the time he had the dogs under control, Harper had removed the child from the porch and left the dead chicken on a barrel in front of the house.

Other officers arrived and following a search of the house, a criminal investigation was opened.

'It's just shocking,' Captain Ronnie Whitaker said on Saturday. 'It's just disturbing that anyone would treat a child in such a manner.'

It is unclear what prompted the use of the dead chicken and handcuffs on the boy. Whitaker said he could not disclose details from police interviews conducted as part of the investigation.


 

Comments (8)

Share what you think

The comments below have been moderated in advance.

Gross red necks should be thrown in to jail and kept on a diet see if they like it - sick ignorance bleh!

8
24
 Click to rate

So what is their excuse for the filth they made those poor children live in? Was that punishment as well?

2
52
 Click to rate

Well hanging a dead chicken round his neck won't help his psychological problems

3
67
 Click to rate

Ok that explains the chicken, what reason or excuse does he have about the kids sleeping on a floor full of faeces and all malnourished ?

2
44
 Click to rate

Be interesting to see how this develops

1
27
 Click to rate

So the handcuffing and dead chicken around his neck was supposed to HELP his psychological issues?

2
51
 Click to rate

Poor chicken

2
27
 Click to rate

I'm glad the one young man had a nice upbringing by these people - BUT - a foster child with psychological problems should be receiving professional help - NOT crazy "discipline" such as being tied-out with a chicken around his neck like you would do a dog (if you are a mangy redneck). It has also been reported that the foster "parents" withheld food as a punishment as well as keeping a house nastier than a chicken-coop! They should be jailed and required to re-pay the money they received for fostering these children!

14
123
 Click to rate

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

We are no longer accepting comments on this article.

Who is this week's top commenter? Find out now