Riley Choate murdered teen son kept in dog cage, Ind. prosecutors say
(CBS/WBBM/AP) - Indiana father Riley Choate was charged Tuesday with murder and neglect in the death of his 13-year-old son, whom prosecutors say he kept locked in a dog cage for more than a year before he died.
Kimberly Choate, the boy's stepmother, faces identical charges, say court documents.
The Hammond, Ind. pair face charges of murder, neglect, battery, and criminal confinement in the April 2009 death of Christian Choate, whose apparent remains were found last week under a concrete slab. According to officials, it could take months to determine with absolute certainty that the body is Christian's.
The new charges were released by the Lake County police just hours after Riley Choate, 39, pleaded not guilty to preliminary charges including altering the scene of a death, a felony, and failing to report a dead body, a misdemeanor.
Christina Choate, 17, the boy's sister, told prosecutors that her father frequently beat the 13-year-old and did not allow him to leave a padlocked dog cage except to eat and use the bathroom. After an investigation, authorities found the cage in Riley Choate's bedroom, reports CBS station WBBM.
According to the sister, Riley Choate beat Christian severely in the head after he refused to eat on April 4, 2009 and the next morning he was unresponsive.
The autopsy report found that the boy's body sustained blunt force trauma, internal bleeding and a skull fracture, say court documents.
According to WBBM, Choate told Lake County police he moved his son's dead body from a mobile home to a shed, put a Bible on his chest, sprinkled lime on the body to aid decomposition, covered the body in a blanket and plastic and buried it in a shallow grave before covering it with concrete.
Choate lived with his wife and two children in a mobile home in Gary, Ind. until Christian's death in April 2009, Lake County Sheriff John Buncich said.
After Christian died, the stepmother and Christian's sister moved to Kentucky, Buncich said.
The investigation into the boy's death began Sunday when Christian's sister called her mother, Aimee Estrada, who still lives in Lake County, and told her Christian was dead. Estrada called 911, Buncich said.
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