The bruised boy shook and had difficulty walking when authorities questioned him in a Knoxville hospital.
A child protective worker and Marion County deputy learned he'd been living in a bedroom wrapped in plastic with little else inside but wet underwear and Pull-Ups training pants.
Born in 2008, the boy said he hadn't been outside since last summer. He gave conflicting reasons for the bruises and thermal injuries on his body that caused him to be hospitalized, a criminal complaint says.
In 2017, the boy and his sister were adopted by their paternal grandparents after lots of interaction with DHS and others in Iowa's child-welfare system.
Jennifer Wooldridge, a Knoxville nurse, and her husband, Rocky Lee Wooldridge, assumed guardianship of the siblings after their mother died in childbirth in 2012, court records show.
The Wooldridges were involved in a custody battle with the children's maternal grandparents until Marion County Judge Martha Mertz approved the adoption. Court records show the boy was the subject of at least two previous child abuse investigations before the adoption was final.
Authorities arrested the stay-at-home husband.
Rocky Wooldridge, 49, now faces one felony neglect charge and one child endangerment charge, an aggravated misdemeanor, in connection with the alleged abuse of the boy.
The boy’s room was covered with plastic and had one blanket and one pillow, with Pull-Ups and wet underwear in the room.
“I briefly spoke to (the boy) who stated he hadn't been outside since summer, then said he got the injuries from sticks," a Marion County deputy wrote. "He initially stated the thermal injuries were from a shower, then stated he spends 20 minutes outside with his dogs in his socked feet."
The criminal complaint said Rocky Wooldridge was the boy's primary caregiver.
Hospitalized Knoxville boy tells authorities he hasn't been outside since last summer; abuse charges filed
Bruised boy lived in plastic-wrapped room, complaint says, and unsecured guns were in house. Grandfather who adopted him faces abuse, weapons charges.
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