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6-Year-Old Dallas Boy Found Tied In Shed Describes Abuse: Sprayed With Hose, Kicked, Not Allowed In House

Man Shares Conversation He Had With 6-Year-Old Dallas Boy Locked In Shed; Called CPS

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - CBSDFW.COM obtained the arrest affidavit Tuesday for the two people accused of abusing a 6-year-old boy who was found with his hands tied behind his back inside a shed in Dallas.

Police found the child behind the home on Coston Drive around 11:30 p.m. on Sunday night. The boy told officers the alleged abuse started since he "got out of school for this corona thing."

The child's grandmother Esmeralda Lira, 53, and her boyfriend, Jose Balderas, 66, were arrested.

Web Arrest Child In Shed
Esmeralda Lira and Jose Balderas (credit: Dallas County Jail)

The child told child abuse detectives during a forensic interview that whenever his grandmother left the home, she put him in the shed, tied him up and told him he was bad. He also said Lira bathed him outside by spraying him with water.

He had been tied up and locked in the shed around 10:30 p.m. the night of the arrests.

The child told police he was always left in the backyard and not allowed to come inside the house.  He would be locked up during the night and let out in the morning and given a plastic bag for if he needed to go to the bathroom.

shed
(credit: Chopper 11)

He also said rats and insects were in the shed with him and that his grandmother would kick him and grab him by the ears.

Balderas told police he was aware of what Lira was doing to the child and did not want to be apart of the situation. He said the child was locked in the shed at least two weeks.

Bond for Lira is set at $100,000 and Balderas' bond is also $100,000.

They both facing felony ​charges ​of endangering ​a child for placing him in ​imminent danger.

Two other children were removed from the home and placed in CPS custody.

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