Two people are now behind bars, in the Hardin County Jail, accused of abusing an eight-year-old boy for several months last year.
Thirty-year-old Alex Shadlow and his girlfriend, 39-year-old Traci Tyler, were charged Wednesday with first-degree kidnapping. The victim in the case in Shadlow’s son. Court documents show the pair locked the boy in a 6 by 6 space in the basement of their Ackley home – with NO lighting or bedding – only a cement floor. The abuse was uncovered when school officials contacted the DHS over concerns about the boy’s health and a DHS worker visited the home. The criminal complaint shows Shadlow and Tyler also deprived the boy of food and physically abused him by hitting him with the handle of a flyswatter and “urging” their dog to bite the child.