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Left: Angela Mittlestadt (Laramie County Sheriff’s Office). Center: Laramie County Fire District Chief Darrick Mittlestadt (Laramie County). Right: Darrick Mittlestadt (LCSO).
A Wyoming fire chief and his wife are accused of starving and abusing their 13-year-old adopted son — causing him to be “wafer thin” and “severely malnourished” — to the point where he weighed 55 pounds when the alleged abuse was uncovered, cops say.
Laramie County Fire District No. 1 Chief Darrick Mittlestadt and his wife, Angela Mittlestadt, have both been charged with aggravated child abuse and conspiracy for the alleged mistreatment, according to local police.
The Laramie County Sheriff’s Office told Law&Crime on Tuesday that the Mittlestadts were facing the charges after turning themselves in on Monday. Public Information Officer Brandon Warner confirmed that Angela Mittlestadt claimed in police interviews that the couple took in the child six years ago.
“F—ed up kid with trauma,” Angela allegedly told an investigator. “I’m an idiot and thought I could help him,” she said, according to Warner.
The pair’s arrest affidavit, which was obtained by the Cowboy State Daily and Wyoming News Now, accused them of starving the 13-year-old because of the way that he “behaved.” The boy reportedly told investigators that he was given crackers and protein shakes as a reward, and that his bedroom door was blockaded for roughly two years.
“I’m only allowed to eat one meal a day since there’s no point in giving me food,” the teen reportedly told a police officer, per the affidavit.
His ribs, collarbones and “other bones and joints” were allegedly “protruding and clearly visible on him due to how thin he was,” the document alleges. He was also missing “much of the hair on his head.”
Angela Mittlestadt told investigators that Darrick Middlestadt works often and it was “overwhelming” for her to deal with the 13-year-old and another younger child that was in the home, according to officials. Authorities say Darrick Middlestadt took a lot of the blame for what happened in his police interviews.
“I failed everyone, because I didn’t do my job,” Darrick allegedly said.
In June, Angela Middlestadt dropped the teen off at a Youth Development Center in Douglas and ordered him to tell a rep there that he “needed somewhere to live,” according to the affidavit. Asked why she would do that, the boy told the interviewer he “wasn’t very nice and did stuff he shouldn’t have done such as wetting the bed and picking at himself.”
The boy, who is originally from Colorado, was taken to the Colorado Children’s Hospital for medical treatment on June 24, weighing just 55 pounds, police say. The malnourishment was not recent and was accompanied by arrested bone growth and joint development, according to pediatricians who treated the child, per cops.
The Laramie County Fire District #1 did not respond to Law&Crime’s requests for comment on Tuesday.
