JONESBORO, Ga. — A 13-year-old boy is back home in Orlando after police found him inside a small compartment behind a linen closet, where he was being hidden inside his father's and stepmother's Georgia home, authorities said.
Police said the boy's mother called 911 on Friday night from her Orlando home to report her son had been missing for four years and was being abused at a Jonesboro house.
Police searched the house twice before finding the boy behind the back wall of an upstairs closet.
"It was harsh. I felt like it was not even a punishment, I wouldn't call it a punishment, I would call it torture or something," the boy, Gregory Jean Jr., told Action News' partner WFTV.
Authorities said Jean Jr. was visiting his father in 2010, but the father refused to return the boy to his mother.
For Action News on the go, sign up for Action News Mobile & Email alerts.
"There was knocking on the door. [Someone] says 'King County Police,' and then I was happy because they were there. But then the first thing Samantha Davis, my stepmom did, all she did was tell me to go in the attic because she thought it was child support," said Jean Jr.
The boy used text messages and photos to help lead police to the small compartment, authorities said.
"It's too much at this age, I should be free right now," said Jean Jr.
"The victim was able to establish phone contact with his mother and she in turn passed on additional information to the officers on the scene," Clayton County police Sgt. Kevin Hughes said.
The boy's father, Gregory Jean, 37, and stepmother, Samantha Joy Davis, 42, are facing charges of child cruelty, false imprisonment and obstruction.
"When it really got cold, they gave me a thick cover to sleep on the floor," he said.
Davis is accused of hitting the boy with a stick on his legs and backside.
The boy was reunited with his mother at the Clayton County Police Department over the weekend.
"I saw my mom and I started crying and then my mom was crying harder. It just, something vibrated in me and like, ok, this is really tough for me," said Jean Jr.
WJAX
