CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- A Cheyenne couple has been charged with emotionally and physically abusing a 14-year-old boy, including by instructing him to drink water until he suffered an acute medical episode that doctors said would have killed him if untreated.
Investigators said the boy was essentially banished to a barren barren basement where he washed his own clothes in the bathtub and only came upstairs for only for meals, which he consumed while standing.
A half-million dollar cash bond was set for mother Stephanie Linke, 36, according to records from the First Judicial District. Her boyfriend Michael Gruchacz, 35, is facing identical charges but has posted a $50,000 cash bond. According to a filing from his attorney, Gruchacz turned himself in last week after learning of Linke's arrest and checking to see if he had a warrant.
Gruchacz and Linke face two identical charges of aggravated child abuse, with penalties of up to 25 years in prison on each. One charge alleges the intentional infliction of "substantial mental or emotional injury by the torture or cruel confinement of the child." The other charges alleges causing serious bodily injury.
Both are presumed innocent unless proven or pleading guilty.
The case began on October 16 about half an hour before midnight when the couple brought the child to the ER at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, the police report states.
The boy had become unresponsive after vomiting and urinating excessively after being instructed by he couple to drink almost two gallons of water over the course of the afternoon and evening.
CRMC staff said the boy was actively seizing at the ER and had an oxygen saturation level at 82%. Normal levels are between 95% and 100%. The doctors said the water had diluted the electrolyte salts in his blood, which can lead to total organ failure. The boy was flown to Children's Hospital in Denver, where he didn't regain consciousness until the following day.
The doctors there told Cheyenne police that the boy would have died without medical intervention.
Linke's told detectives she'd read online that someone should drink "half their body weight in water" each day, an apparently erroneous reading of popular advice that one should take half their body weight in pounds and drink that number of fluid ounces each day.
Both CRMC and Children's Hospital staff noted that the boy's body was "covered with scars, bruises, and marks." Doctors also treated an infected area behind the boy's ear. He said he had gotten sunburned while pulling weeds that summer and it got infected from scratching.
Doctors said the boy was "moderately malnourished" and vitamin deficient. They said he began eating normally and gained about a pound a day over his 11 days at the hospital. They concluded that his food intake at home was being restricted.
After discharge from the hospital, the boy reportedly told forensic investigators that that Linke would often yelled at him, hit him and drag him around the carpet. He said Gruchacz once hit him in the neck and shoulder with a "karate chop," according to the affidavit.
He said Linke had once pushed him into a steel garage door, where he struck his head.
The boys two siblings also described that the boy lived in the basement and was only allowed to come up for meals, which he consumed while standing apart from the dinner table. He said he usually ate leftovers, oatmeal, Raman and peanut butter unless he "earned" eating the family meal.
One sibling described seeing Gruchacz slap the boy so hard in the face that he fell and cried.
The boy recalled one instance of not being fed for three days.
Cheyenne detectives said home security footage captured many of the couple's interactions with boy int he basement. The footage reportedly captured the woman saying "Why shouldn't I throw you in the trash?"
The affidavit includes an alleged October 13 conversation between the couple:
"Linke: "First [he] just walked upstairs without being called"
Gruchacz: "I see. Was he looking for open kitchen hours?"
The boy said he remembered nothing of October 18, the day he was hospitalized.
Gruchacz said the boy had drunk a gallon of water in about 90 minutes that afternoon. He had another half gallon at dinner and was into the last half gallon when he went to the bathroom. He said they heard a thunk and found him unresponsive, choking on vomit and "continuously urinating." They called 911 and revived him in the bathtub.
Gruchacz said the boy was combative with paramedics when they arrived, and that though they offered to take him to the hospital, they agreed with him and Linke that the issue was probably "behavioral."
They took the boy to the hospital after he began slumping over and involuntarily stiffening his limbs, the report said.