POTOSI, MO – A Missouri couple is accused of locking two teenagers in a chicken pen and shooting them with BB guns while also forcing the kids to fight each other for entertainment.
Chantel Spring Hayford, 38, and Jerry Allen Menees were arrested January 13 and are being held without bond on a laundry list of charges including kidnapping, child endangerment, and domestic assault.
The victims are a 13-year-old and a 14-year-old who investigators say suffered “repeated abuse” at the hands of the couple. What they endured sounds like something out of a horror movie.
According to court documents, the suspects would lock the children inside a secured chicken pen and then shoot at them with BB guns. They also allegedly threatened the kids with real firearms, including handguns, warning them what would happen if they ever told anyone.
Then there were the “fight nights” – organized brawls where the teenagers were forced to fight each other while the adults watched.
When child welfare workers finally removed the kids from the home, they discovered both were severely malnourished. Neither one had been enrolled in school. Neither one could read or write.
One guardian who took in the children said they would show up at her door begging for food. The kids’ mother allegedly gave up custody of them in exchange for a cellphone and a phone plan.
Menees faces charges including kidnapping, child endangerment, armed criminal action, unlawful weapon use, and domestic assault. Hayford is charged with kidnapping, first-degree sexual abuse, child endangerment, and domestic assault among other counts.
Both remain in custody awaiting trial. The children have been placed with relatives.
