Boy found behind fake wall: No bail for Gregory Jean, Samantha Davis says judge
A father and stepmother, charged with false imprisonment and cruelty to children, will remain in jail after a judge refused to set bond during their first court hearing on Sunday. The boy, now a teen, was missing for four years and found behind a “fake wall” in their Atlanta home.
Saturday morning, teen, now 13, was apparently able to get to a phone and contacted his mother via text with his whereabouts, authorities said.
Jean, 37, Davis, 42, and three underage “suspects” were arrested by Clayton County police said Capt. Angelo Daniel.
KHON reported that the boy is Gregory Jean Jr. but police and officials have not confirmed his identity.
The mother then reported him missing to child welfare authorities, but not to police, possibly because she was an immigrant and unfamiliar with the legal system.
Clayton County police were called to a house late Friday, but the occupants denied any knowledge of the child. Just to be sure, police searched the house. They found nothing, local media said.
After the text, police returned.
“We opened the compartment area where he was and I saw him and asked him to come forward,” Clayton County Police Sgt. Joanne Sutherland told WSB-TV. “He was horrified. He was frozen with fear.”
The boy was terrified when police found him, WSB-TV reported, but he then kept repeating “Thank you, thank you,” as officers took him from the home.
Weeping, the boy was reunited with his mother at the Clayton County Police headquarters.
Jean and Davis were scheduled to appear in court again on December 9.