FBI to question Detroit boy, 12, who was found in basement

DETROIT - The FBI will question a 12-year-old Detroit boy who was the subject of an extensive police search for more than a week before authorities found him in his own basement, police said Monday.

The FBI "has scheduled a forensic interview" on Tuesday with Charlie Bothuell V, Detroit police said in a statement.

"Based on the outcome of this interview, the Detroit Police Department may be submitting a package to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office as early as Wednesday afternoon," the statement said.

Police spokeswoman Officer Jennifer Moreno told The Associated Press in an email that the FBI plans to have a "kid's talk" with the boy, not administer a polygraph. She said the case remained a state rather than a federal matter.

Charlie's father reported him missing June 14, telling police that the boy had taken a bathroom break while exercising and never returned, reports CBS Detroit. Officers found the boy last Wednesday behind boxes in the bowels of the multiple-unit condo building where he lived with father Charlie Bothuell IV and stepmother Monique Dillard-Bothuell.

Bothuell IV learned that his son had been found as he appeared live on air with television journalist Nancy Grace.

Dillard-Bothuell was arrested Thursday on accusations of violating probation in an unrelated case involving firearms. She was released with an electronic tether. Her two children, Bothuell V's siblings, were placed in the custody of Children's Protective Services.

According to a document obtained by the Detroit Free Press, the boy told investigators that his stepmother sent him to the basement and told him "not to come out, no matter what he hears."

The petition filed in Wayne County juvenile court by Children's Protective Services as part of a custody hearing said that Dillard-Bothuell placed the boy in the basement behind boxes and totes. It said the boy scavenged for food when his family was away.

The paper also reports that the petition says that when the boy was taken to a hospital to be evaluated, a doctor observed a scar on his chest, which the 12-year-old said was from his father "driving a PVC pipe into his chest."

The petition reportedly goes on to say that a PVC pipe with blood on it was recovered from the family's home and while it's unclear whose blood is on the pipe, Bothuell IV "disclosed physically disciplining" his son with a pipe.

Bothuell IV's attorney has denied that a pipe was used to beat the boy.

Police say the 12-year-old boy is currently staying with relatives and his stepmother and father have been granted supervised visitation by the state.