A woman in Pennsylvania is accused of severely abusing her 4-year-old stepson, and the little boy’s father reportedly allowed it to happen.
According to court documents filed this week, Danielle Duke has been abusing her stepson for several months.
A concerned person reportedly contacted police after observing that “on numerous occasions, spanning approximately three months, she observed Danielle Duke on a daily basis cause (the child) to suffer her verbal, physical, and psychological abuse and Nathan Duke’s failure to stop said abuse.”
The investigation began when family members showed authorities photos of the little boy with a number of horrific injuries, including cuts, bruises, burns, and redness around his entire body.
The woman who initially alerted authorities to the abuse revealed that Duke physically and verbally abused the boy on a daily basis.
Of the many unbelievable things the woman witnessed, she said Duke fed her stepson laxatives and poured hot sauce in his mouth, refusing to give him water for as long as 15 minutes at a time.
The witness also saw Duke “playing mermaid” with the boy, which reportedly entailed wrapping his legs with a sheet and duct tape. He would allegedly be left like that for several hours at a time.
Police wrote in a complaint that Duke often yelled abusive things, like “I’m gonna kick your a–,” “You are a f–ing pig,” “You nasty a–hole,” and “You have a stupid, f–ing, ugly face,” at the boy.
Authorities believe Duke hated the boy because he is her husband’s child with another woman, a fact that made her extremely jealous.
Even more disturbing, police say, is that Duke’s husband, Nathan Duke, stood by and did nothing while his son was brutally abused.
Both Duke and her husband are now facing several child abuse charges.
