Responding to concerns from the Cooper-Anthony Mercy Child Advocacy Center, police discovered a 4-year-old abused Arkansas girl who told them her name was ‘idiot’. The tragically abused Arkansas girl was taken into custody after being zip-tied to her bed as a punishment by her mother and her mother’s boyfriend, who thought her name was ‘idiot’.
The two accused in the case of the abused Arkansas girl are Jennifer Diane Denen, aged thirty, and her boyfriend, Clarence Eugene Reed, aged forty-seven. They were arrested last Friday on suspicion of domestic battery, permitting the abuse of a minor and endangering the welfare of a minor.
The girl was reported to have deep purple bruising on her bottom, lower back and legs as well as bearing a black eye, swollen right cheek, a bruise on her forehead and scars that were healing across her back. She was also reported to have dried blood in the corner of her mouth. The marks on her wrists gave hints of the abused Arkansas girl being restrained in some way, as well as her overall appearance seeming malnourished.
When authorities interviewed her and asked her name, she told them it was “idiot”.
A Hot Springs police spokesman, Cpl. Zirk Zaner, stated that there were a total of six children who resided in the home with the girl. Another child, an eleventh-moth-old, was reported to be with protective services along with four other siblings that live with their biological father.
Denen and Reed were arrested at the hospital and were taken to the Hot Springs station for questioning. Denen hastily told police that she witnessed her boyfriend strike the child with a plastic baseball bat, and another juvenile told authorities that both parties had zip-tied the girl to a chair. Denen also admitted her failure to seek care for the girl, and claimed that Reed referred to her often as “idiot”.
Reed admitted that he did refer to the abused Arkansas girl as “idiot”, but claimed it was only a joke.
The two are being held on $500,000 bond and are set to appear in Garland County District Court on August 23rd.
