ALLEN COUNTY, Kan. (CNN/WFLA) — A Lola, Kansas father faces felony charges for leaving his 4-year-old son locked in a bedroom alone while he went to work, police say.
Blayke Reynolds was charged with three felonies, including aggravated child endangerment.
Leo Wood, Reynolds’ neighbor, said his family often saw the kid standing in the bedroom window of his home, but he had no idea this time the boy was locked inside alone without food or a bathroom.
“The kid is standing there in the window beating on the window doing one of these numbers like saying, ‘hi,’” Wood said. “We didn’t think nothing of it. Figured, ‘OK, somebody’s there.’”
But when Wood’s stepdaughter heard the child hollering for help around 5 p.m. that afternoon, she knew something was not right.
Deputies forced their way into the house and broke into the locked bedroom. They weren’t prepared for what they found.
“There was such a strong ammonia odor in the room,” Allen County Sheriff Brian Murphy said. “The room was just unbearable. Of course there’s feces, everything, no way shape or form they were living conditions for any time of human being – let alone a 4-year-old child.”
Reynolds told deputies he could not afford child care for his son.
“All he would have had to do is come over and knock on the door and say, ‘hey I’ve got to be at work, I need a sitter.’ Not a problem,” Wood said.
Deputies are investigating reports that this may not have been the first time the boy was locked in the room and left alone.
