Stepmom Confined Boy, 4, to Closet with Portable Toilet as Trash Piled Up and Roaches Crawled Nearby: Police

Saybra Martin has been charged with abuse or neglect of a child.

Jasper County Sheriff's Office

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Saybra Martin allegedly confined her four-year-old stepson to a closet that smelled like urine and contained a small portable toilet as well as couch cushions with “flies buzzing around them”

Deputies with the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office were called to a home in Carthage on August 15 after a social services specialist found the boy in the closet

She has been charged with abuse or neglect of a child in the case

A Missouri woman allegedly confined her 4-year-old stepson to a closet that smelled like urine and contained a portable toilet as well as couch cushions with “flies buzzing around them.”

Saybra Martin has been charged with abuse or neglect of a child.

According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by PEOPLE, deputies with the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office were called to a home in Carthage on August 15 after a Jasper County Children’s Division worker found a boy inside a closet.

Inside the closet, deputies observed a small toddler portable toilet, two couch cushions “with flies buzzing around them,” and a “strong odor of urine,” the affidavit states.

Martin allegedly told deputies that she confined the boy to the closet for approximately three hours “because of behavioral issues and because he had been hitting his siblings,” the affidavit states.

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During a forensic interview, the boy allegedly said Martin “had spanked him on his buttocks using both her hand and a light brown paddle.”

The victim told police he had been spanked “while wearing clothing as well as on his bare buttocks,” the affidavit states.

The boy also disclosed that Martin allegedly threw a Gatorade bottle at him, hitting him in the head.

“The victim stated he cried after being struck, and Martin later gave him an ice pack,” according to the affidavit.

A nurse practitioner who examined the boy found “significant bruising to the victim’s buttocks” and told law enforcement “that the bruising on the victim’s face was consistent with someone forcefully grabbing his face,” the affidavit states.

Martin allegedly confessed to police that she spanked the boy but claimed she only struck him four times. She also allegedly said she threw the Gatorade bottle in the boy’s direction and that the “bottle struck the wall before unintentionally striking the victim in the head.”

“Martin further admitted grabbing the victim by the face to make him look at her while she was talking to him,” the affidavit states. “Martin acknowledged that her actions were wrong and admitted that confining the victim in the closet was wrong.”

The boy and three other children, between the ages of 10 and 11 months, were removed from the home.

According to the affidavit, the home was in an “extremely unsanitary condition,” trash was piled “both inside and outside the home” and a “strong foul order was detected,” per the affidavit.

Deputies also observed “cockroach activity and spoiled food” on the kitchen floor.

Martin is also charged with abuse or neglect of a child in another 2026 case involving a four-year-old female victim who she allegedly spanked multiple times on her bare buttocks with a wooden spoon causing large bruises.

Martin has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

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