The demolition company boss spoke of her horror after stepping into a makeshift ‘jail cell’ where a Christian couple allegedly kept their ‘upset’ teenage son locked up and under constant video surveillance.
Tracy and Timothy Ferriter are charged with child abuse over allegations that they whipped and beat their 14-year-old adopted child and forced him to live in an 8-foot by 8-foot box in the garage of their Jupiter, Florida home.
Entrepreneur Rebecca Miller saw the eerie fence herself after the Ferriters, who didn’t have a $50,000 bail, hired her firm Demo Boyzz to quietly tear it down Saturday morning.
The accused couple, both 46 years old, passed off the building as an office, despite the fact that it has no windows and the doorknob, lock and light switch are located outside.
It was also fitted with a security camera so they could monitor the teenager day and night as he slept, ate and spent up to 18 hours at a time inside a narrow drywall cube, only letting him out to school, it was claimed.
Couple Jupiter Timothy and Tracey Ferriter, who face child abuse charges over allegations they whipped and beat their adopted 14-year-old and forced him to live in an 8-foot by 8-foot box in the garage, cleaned the room last Saturday in their garage.
Tracey Ferriter, 46 (left) and Timothy Ferriter, 46 (right), both from Jupiter, both pleaded not guilty to one count of aggravated child abuse and one count of false imprisonment for allegedly forcing their adopted son to stay in a locked cell structure in their garage when he was out of school
Demolition expert Rebecca Miller was dismayed when she saw the eerie fence after the Ferriters, missing a $50,000 bail, hired her firm Demo Boyzz to quietly demolish it on Saturday morning.
Miller told : “My heart breaks for their child when I saw him with my own eyes. It’s a prison cell, that’s what it is, it was awful.” Her team is seen demolishing the structure.
Timothy Ferriter was spotted outside his home as the fence in his garage was quietly demolished on Saturday.
My heart breaks for their child after seeing this with my own eyes. It’s a prison cell, that’s what it is, it was horrible,” Rebecca, 32, told .
“Imagine that you live like this, not controlling anything, not even your own switch. Not knowing when someone will come and punish you, and if you can ever get out.
“I don’t know if these people will go to jail or not, but if they do, it will show them what it means to live like a prisoner.”
The Ferriters were arrested on February 8 after their son escaped and told police about his plight, saying he would rather be locked up in jail than sent back to his devout Catholic parents to face trial for aggravated abuse. and false conclusion.
Miller says her team spent an hour and a half demolishing it, carrying debris through a side entrance, because a paranoid Timothy Ferriter refused to open the garage’s main door.
After the work was completed, Miller was stunned to receive an email from his lawyer threatening to withhold the outstanding balance of $1,150 for the $3,450 work unless they signed a non-disclosure agreement.
Their three other children, aged two, 13, and 16, lived normally in the spacious $750,000 family property, while their brother was fed scraps and forced to work in the yard and write lines for petty offenses such as “stealing” cookies. according to court documents.
Rebecca, a mom of two who runs Demo Boyzz with her 35-year-old husband Ryan, said being in the claustrophobic cube would have a devastating effect on a child’s mental health. Pictured are Rebecca and Ryan.
previously reported that Ferriters was first reported to authorities on December 28 last year by builder Jacques Ben Aim, who was paid $3,000 and given just two days to build a “very odd” office in their garage.
The detectives agreed that it was suspicious, but could not act on the information as there was no evidence of a crime.
But that all changed on January 28 of this year, when Tracey Ferriter contacted the police and reported that her son was missing, claiming that he suffered from “several behavioral disorders” and had problems at school.
Detective Andrew Sharp visited Ferriter’s property and discovered a tiny “cell” equipped with a bed, chair, desk and school books.
When the missing teenager was discovered the next day, he told police all about his alleged life in captivity, saying he was forbidden from the rest of his house, fed scraps and forced to go to the toilet in a bucket.
He also claimed to have been whipped, slapped with a belt, punched in the face, and spat on by his parents, who followed him through a Ring camera.
The Ferriters have defended their behavior in lawsuits, saying they were forced to keep their son locked up because he took guns to school, attacked his siblings, and suffered from “long-standing dangerous and disturbing tendencies”.
previously reported that Ferriters was first reported to authorities on December 28 last year by builder Jacques Ben Aim, who was paid $3,000 and given just two days to build a “very odd” office in their garage. Miller’s team at the Ferriter house
received plans to demolish the garage. “I didn’t sign anything and I won’t sign anything,” Rebecca said. “I don’t feel sorry for these people after I saw how their child lives”
Plans to demolish the structure of the Ferriter house are visible. “It’s crazy because they seem like such normal people. The area is normal, they have three dogs, they obviously have money,” Miller said.
Timothy Ferriter is seen with the demolition team on Saturday. He wore an Arizona T-shirt and cap and tried to remain low key.
But Rebecca, a mom of two who runs Demo Boyzz with her 35-year-old husband Ryan, said being in the claustrophobic cube would have a devastating effect on a child’s mental health.
“There was no window, no place to do anything. It’s just drywall all around you,” she told .
“It was a very well built structure. It would have been pitch dark there as soon as they turned off the lights outside. It would drive anyone crazy if they were locked in there day after day.
Rebecca says her team spent an hour and a half demolishing it, carrying debris through a side entrance, because a paranoid Timothy Ferriter refused to open the garage’s main door.
Upon completion of the work, she was stunned to receive an email from his lawyer threatening to withhold the outstanding balance of $1,150 for the $3,450 work unless they signed a non-disclosure agreement.
“I didn’t sign anything and I won’t sign anything,” Rebecca said. “I don’t feel sorry for these people after I saw how their child lives.
“It’s crazy because they seem like such normal people. The area is normal, they have three dogs, they have money.
“There were skateboards and a mini fridge in the garage. Other than the box, it was completely normal.”
According to a now-deleted online profile, the outwardly respectable Timothy Ferriter has held senior marketing positions at several Fortune 500 companies.
Previously, he was the president of publishing company Decided Excellence Qatar Media, and in 2018 he was a guest on the SiriusXM podcast hosted by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York.
Tracey and Tommy Ferriter are pictured with three children. Child Protective Services took the couple’s other three children, including a two-year-old child, from the home.
An unnamed 14-year-old boy told police that he was spanked, beaten with a belt and rope, spat on frequently and reportedly asked to be put in jail so he would not have to return to his foster parents. their kids
The accused couple, both 46, told police that the makeshift cage was a home office, despite having no windows or a doorknob inside, but with a deadbolt and a single light switch located outside.
Detectives suspect he and his wife may have locked up their son as early as 2017 after uncovering evidence that similar cell-like rooms existed in their previous two homes in Florida and Arizona.
The couple’s lawyer, Nellie King, wrote to police and prosecutors last month alleging the boy was a threat to his siblings who had been taken away by child protection services.
King’s letter alleged that the teen pushed an unnamed family member so hard that he broke her shoulder, knocked his two-year-old brother off his bike, and left another brother in the hospital when he pushed her onto a windowsill.
He also “tortured animals, shouted in class, ‘The Holocaust is good’ and ‘All immigrants are drug dealers,'” the note said.
The boy “brings knives and guns to school, draws artillery and artillery fire, roams the house terrorizing others at night, and fantasizes about killing people,” King added, offering to turn over the boy’s medical and school records to authorities.
The Ferriters are due in court on March 24.