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Police Find 6-Year-Old Boy Tied Up In Shed, Grandmother And Boyfriend Arrested

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

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

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - A man and woman are in jail after a 6-year-old boy 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.

shed
(credit: Chopper 11)

When they asked the boy's grandmother, later identified as Esmeralda Lira, 53, where he was, she told officers he was with his mother. But when they walked toward the back of the house, they found a man living in the back of the property who pointed them toward the shed.

Officers told the grandmother to open the shed or they would break down the door. She opened it and police found the boy.

His grandmother said he was only in there that one time as punishment. But her boyfriend, Jose Balderas, 64,  said for at least two weeks, confinement in the shed was the child's punishment since he was stealing food.

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

The boy told officers the alleged abuse started since he "got out of school for this corona thing."

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.

 

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