DETROIT, MI — Charlie Bothuell V, who spent 11 days in what he called a basement hiding spot while authorities searched for him in a case that garnered national attention, testified Wednesday in the court case against his father Charlie Bothuell IV and stepmother Monique Dillard-Bothuwell, who reported the boy missing June 14, 2014.
The 13-year-old, then 12, was found by police behind a pile of boxes in the couple’s basement on June 25, 2014 while his father was being interviewed on national television.
The couple was charged with torture and second-degree child abuse after the boy was found to be “very thin, with marks on his upper body,” according to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s office.
The two were accused of abusing the child, depriving him of food and forcing him to live in the basement and to “engage in an extreme and unreasonable exercise regime.”
The teen testified Wednesday in a preliminary examination that he complied with his stepmother’s alleged demands that he remain hidden in the basement because he “didn’t know what would happen if I was found.”
“I didn’t think that anybody would believe me,” the younger Bothuell said. “… I had been threatened before that she would kill me.”