Durham, N.C. – A Texas couple were charged with attempted first-degree murder after a sheriff’s deputy found their dehydrated, malnourished 4-year-old son, who police say weighed 12 pounds, in their tractor-trailer Wednesday.
Investigators say they think Richard and Amber Dowen of Riverside, Texas, had starved their son, Randolph Thomas, since April. The boy was in critical condition late Wednesday at Duke Hospital, police said.
“I have never seen anything like that. It reminded me of photographs of the Holocaust, the starvation,” said Durham County Magistrate Eric Van Vleet, who saw photographs while setting bail for the couple.
The average weight of a 4-year-old boy is 35 to 45 pounds, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
A Durham County sheriff’s deputy discovered the boy about 8:20 a.m. when the officer saw a man inside an 18-wheeler near Interstate 40 waving an arm out the window.
The man, identified by police as Richard Dowen, 32, told the officer that his stepson appeared to be unconscious and needed a doctor, according to Durham police.
Another child inside the truck, a 15-month-old girl, appeared to be healthy.
