In October 2003, a caregiver named Carlyle Smith visited the Ohio home of Sharen and Michael Gravelle. He was interviewing for a part-time job that entailed helping the couple take care of their 11 adopted children.
But shortly after walking inside the house, Carlyle realized something was horribly wrong.
According to The Blade, Carlyle claimed to bear witness to the unthinkable: that the Gravelles told him not to go upstairs where the children slept; that Sharen told one of the kids to go upstairs and lock himself in his cage after he went to the bathroom in his pants; that Michael told him he’d know if the children were trying to escape their cages if their fingers were cut from the wires.
Carlyle sobbed as drove away from the Gravelle home. He didn’t take the job. Instead, he blew the whistle on what he saw and heard.
The Gravelles were eventually convicted of child endangerment and child abuse.
- Barbara Diamond, LittleThings.com