A Sioux Falls man and woman face abuse charges after keeping a boy locked up in his room for 19 hours.

"We had an eight-year-old boy that showed up at a neighbor's house and asked to call a relative," according to Police Department Public Information Officer Sam Clemens.

"They called a relative and also called police. When officers started looking into this they ended up figuring out the boy had been locked in his bedroom for just about 19 hours. His mother and her boyfriend locked him in the room and then left the apartment. He was in there by himself with no food, no water, no bathroom facilities."

After hours of being locked up in the room, Clemens says the boy was able to escape.

"He was able to get the screen off the window. He threw a cushion outside and jumped from his second story window onto the cushion. That's when he went and alerted the neighbor. Both mom and the boyfriend were arrested for abuse or cruelty to a child and false imprisonment."

Clemens identified the mom and boyfriend as 26-year-old Natalie Connot and 27-year-old Jeremy Harbert. Both are from Sioux Falls.


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