A Scranton couple is behind bars following accusations of abuse, which included forcing him to sleep in a coffin, made by their 7-year-old son.
The boy was found crying in the bug-infested basement of a condemned home on Raines Street on September 26, after neighbors called police, according to The Times-Tribune.
The victim tells authorities that his mother, 26-year-old Lori Gardner, and his stepfather, 31-year-old Brian Sleboda, made him sleep in a coffin in the basement with virtually no light and flies and ticks swarming, reports the paper. He says they often taped the coffin shut and that they even put a chair on top of it.
He also tells authorities that the two tortured him by telling him ghosts lived down there and that they often made noises to scare him.
Police say that Gardner admitted that was son was in the basement as a form of punishment.
The couple turned themselves in on Tuesday afternoon.
"It's a very sad case," Chief Dan Duffy told the Times-Tribune. "That's pretty much all I can say."
