A boy wrote chilling details on how his own parents tortured and locked him in a dog cage.
Christian Choate, 13, wrote ‘I want to die’ on the paper given to him by his stepmother to express how he felt.
Christian, from Gary, Indiana, wrote that he simply wanted to be liked by his family even if they were ‘abusing’ him.
The letters were released by the Indiana Department of Child Services, and it showed that Christian spent most of his last year in a three-foot-high dog cage.
In the letters, Christian detailed how he had to steal food when he was starving because his family would not feed him, and he would only be let out to clean the house and was almost never allowed outside.
He also stated in the letters that his sole means of entertainment appears to have been a pencil and pieces of paper given to him by his stepmother.
“Christian wrote of why nobody liked him and how he just wanted to be liked by his family,” DCS records stated as per the Chicago Sun-Times. “Christian stated that he wanted to die because nobody liked the way he ‘acted.’”
“Christian’s writings detail a very sad, depressed child who often wondered when someone, anyone, was going to come to check on him and give him food or liquid,” DCS continued. “Christian often stated he was hungry or thirsty.”
Some of his writings were random but the records show that Kimberly Kubina, his stepmother, would give him ‘homework’ assignments with horrifying titles.
Such assignments included ‘why do you still want to see your mom? ‘why can’t you let the past go?’ and ‘what does it mean to be part of a family?’
Christian died in 2009 due to blunt force trauma injuries and a skull fracture.
According to the police, his father, Rile Choate, buried him in a shallow grave, covered it with concrete, and moved away.
The DCS records show that Riley was a known abuser who was not allowed to keep custody of his son.
In August 2004, Riley was accused of abusing Christian, however, no proof was obtained so the boy remained in his custody.
But during the same month, Riley was found to have physically abused his wife’s nieces while living with them and was cited by the DCS for ‘inappropriate discipline.
Years before Christian’s death, DCS records show there were eight incidents of abuse in houses where his family had lived.
“With regard to this case, DCS did everything it legally could to ensure the well-being of these children at the time of our interactions with the family,” DCS spokesman Ann Houseworth said.
Riley Choate and Kimberly Kubina pleaded guilty in 2012 and were sentenced to 80 years in prison.