Last week, Camille Rechae Lewis and her partner, John Lawrence Miles, were taken into custody in Oklahoma on multiple counts of child abuse and neglect, according to the Tulsa Police Department. Furthermore, Miles was charged with a single count of child sexual abuse.
Their arrests resulted from an investigation into the disappearance of Lewis’ 11-year-old son, whom she had falsely claimed had run away.
The incident was first brought to the attention of the police on January 27th, when the children’s grandmother reported her grandson as missing and feared dead.
Additionally, she told them that Lewis had left her 13-year-old daughter under her care in September 2022, and she was abnormally thin. Lewis had allegedly told her mother that her 11-year-old son had died but refused to give any other details.
The 13-year-old girl told detectives that her mother and stepfather would keep her and her brother confined in separate closets for days without food or water. She also mentioned that they were beaten with belts and cords. On some occasions, she and her brother were forced to sleep in an the backyard in an igloo-style doghouse and forced to exercise outdoors in cold weather. Furthermore, the stepfather allegedly tried to bribe her with food in exchange for sexual favors.
The girl also remembered her mother telling her about her brother’s death. According to Lewis, her 11-year-old had had a seizure and died, so they were afraid to call for help as they feared the repercussions. Miles and a cousin buried the body in a park to hide the incident, dug it up again, burned it in a barrel, and disposed of the ashes in a drainage system.
The boy’s body has not been found, but police say they are investigating it as a homicide. Charges may change based on the findings of the investigation.
When Lewis was taken into custody on February 7th, she admitted to abusing her children and causing the various scars seen on her daughter’s body. Despite this, she still maintained that she hadn’t seen her son since he had supposedly run away.