She tortured a 13-year-old boy who has a disability — cutting and chaining him, deputies say
He rushed home from work Monday night to find his 13-year-old son, who has an intellectual disability, tethered to a metal step stool, soaked in urine and covered in a blanket, according to a deputy. The boy also had a burn mark under his eye.
When he asked Jennifer Foran — her relationship to the father and boy is not clear — what happened, she refused to tell him, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said.
On Tuesday, the Broward Sheriff’s Office received a report of possible child abuse in Pompano Beach. Because the report is heavily redacted, it’s not clear where the boy was located when the call was made. The boy ultimately told investigators Foran burned him. The boy’s father also detailed months of abuse that his son endured at the hands of Foran, according to the report.
In one case, deputies say Foran cut him with an eyebrow razor, causing one of many scars on the boy’s body.
“Special Victims Unit detectives said this is one of the most disturbing child abuse cases they’ve ever investigated,” a BSO spokesperson said.
Foran was arrested Tuesday on charges that include aggravated child abuse. She also was charged in an April incident — where the boy’s father said she fired a shot at his Xbox, a gaming console. She was being held Thursday in BSO’s North Broward Bureau on a $450,000 bond.
An attorney was not listed for Foran, court records showed. Authorities did not identify the teenager and were unclear whether Foran was the boy’s mother.
The father, who BSO did not identify, told investigators he didn’t report the abuse out of fear, according to the report. BSO would not say Thursday whether the father will face charges for not reporting Foran to authorities.
According to the report, Foran called the father Monday night, telling him that it was an emergency and to come home. His boy was in the laundry room, with a blanket over his head and one leg tied to the stool with a cable lock, he told police. He said he noticed the burn right away and put cream on it, the deputy wrote in the report.
After initially refusing to tell the father what occurred, she said that he urinated in a foot bath, so she threw it at him, according to the police report.
“Through interviewing [redacted] it became apparent that the victim has been exposed to long term, repeated, physical abuse,” a deputy wrote in the report. “The victim has numerous linear scars throughout his entire body.”
Deputies said that “it was also common” for the teen to be near the water heater and other appliances. The boy’s father also reported seeing Foran use handcuffs, the report said.
The father allowed deputies to search his home — where they found the victim’s urine soaked clothes, a cable lock, a rubber hose and the foot bath. They also found the Xbox with a bullet hole in it, investigators said.
The Florida Department of Children and Families referred questions to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, which has a specialized unit that investigates allegations of abuse. BSO would not comment further on the case.
It was not clear Thursday whether a shelter hearing for the child would be held.
