Flavaine Carvalho did not intend to take a shift from Mrs. Potato restaurant not working, but someone called in sick, and she filled it out, her boss Rafaela Cabede said Thursday afternoon during a press conference.
It was busy the rest of the day because it was a holiday, but things eventually slowed down and the family was the last table of the night, she said.
“We really believe it was a sacred provision, and we were very blessed to be able to help this child,” Cabede explained.
“Because of her, two children were … rescued,” Orlando police chief Orlando Rolon told the news conference. “We would probably have talked about a possible homicide investigation if she had not intervened when she did.”
According to Carvalho, the boy was wearing a mask and a hoodie while sitting at the table with two adults and a young girl.
Although she could not see much, Carvalho said she noticed that he had a scratch in his eyebrows and that he did not order anything and did not eat, even though food was brought to the table.
“You do not deny food to a child”
Carvalho said it was strange to her that the child was not eating and that he was quiet while the others talked and played.
She asked at the table if they ate and drank. When one of the adults replied that the boy would eat his dinner at home, Carvalho said she started thinking something else was going on.
“You do not deny food to a child, especially not in a restaurant,” Carvalho said.
She then saw bruises on the side of the boy’s face and arm and decided to see what she could do to help him.
“I just thought I should do something,” Carvalho explained. “I could not see him leave without any help.”
Caravalho wrote a note asking the boy if he was okay and going to stand behind the parents where they could not see.
The boy nodded. “I knew it – that he was scared or that he was not comfortable saying he needed help,” Carvalho said.
So she decides to write another note.
This one said, “Do you need help?” Carvalho said the boy nodded yes and “made a movement with his hands to show that he did not know what to do.”
Carvalho called her boss and then called 911.
In a 911 call, Carvalho tells dispatchers that she is worried about the boy.
“One of the children has a lot of bruises on his arms and face and the parent is not giving him food but giving to the other children who are with them,” she said in the recording that CNN sent to CNN. . Orlando Police Department. “I’m very worried and do not know what to do. Can you give me advice?”
Boy describes accusations of abuse
Police arrived and questioned the child, who told detectives he had been abused by his stepfather, who was identified by police as Timothy Lee Wilson II.
The boy told detectives that he was hit with a wooden broom, hung upside down on a door and that he regularly refused food as punishment, according to a news release in Orlando police.
Wilson was arrested at the restaurant and the boy’s mother, Kristen Swann, was arrested on Jan. 6 after the boy made additional disclosure of alleged abuse, Lawler said.
The stepfather is charged with several charges of serious child abuse and neglect, court documents show.
A Orlando police statement said Swann admitted to detectives that she knew about the abuse, and failed to seek medical attention for her son. She appears from two charges of child neglect, it appears from court documents.
According to Lawler, a 4-year-old child was removed from the home, and it was found that he had not suffered any abuse.
“It shocks your soul”
Lawler said the boy is Swann’s child and the 4-year-old Swann and Wilson’s child.
After Carvalho called 911, the boy was taken to his hospital due to his injuries, where according to Lawler he was 20 kilograms underweight.
Bruises all over the boy’s body in various stages of healing were also noticed, Lawler said.
“What this child went through was torture,” Lawler said with tears in her eyes. “I’m a mom and see what that 11-year-old had to go through … It shocks your soul.”
‘As Mrs. “Carvalho would not have said anything when she saw that little boy would probably not be with us much longer,” she added.
According to Lawler, the boy told investigators he was abused on Christmas Day when the parents said Santa suggested he be punished. The punishment resulted in him being handcuffed to a furniture doll, Lawler said, with his hands behind his back with ribbons on his ankles and made to free himself. He was also hung upside down from his ankles in a doorway with ratchet straps, Lawler said.
The detective said the parents said they would punish him by having him do planks for 30 minutes and hit him if he could not do so.
Wilson and Swann were both booked in Orange County Jail.
CNN has reached out to a Wilson lawyer, but has not heard of it yet. CNN could not determine whether Swann has legal representation.
In the court report, it appears that Wilson appeared for the first time on January 6 for four charges, including three charges of serious child abuse and one of child neglect.
They both remain in Orange County Jail, Orlando Police Department spokeswoman Heidi Rodriguez said in an email to CNN on Thursday.