US police detail malnourished teen's confinement

DALLAS, Georgia (AP) - A teen was so malnourished he still had his baby teeth at age 18 and was so isolated that his sisters who lived in the same home had no contact with him aside from hearing his screams, detectives testified Thursday.

The young man, Mitch Comer, stood 1.77m and weighed 40kg when he raised the suspicion of a guard at a bus station in downtown Los Angeles last month. He said he was put on a bus by his stepfather, Paul Comer, on his 18th birthday with a few hundred dollars cash and a list of homeless shelters.

Mitch Comer told detectives he was subjected to years of abuse after being taken out of school in eighth grade, confined to a bathroom and bedroom and shielded from sunlight so long his skin had become translucent.

Detectives described their interviews with the teen and his family on Thursday during a hearing that ended with Paul Comer and the teen's mother, Sheila Comer, being denied bond. The teen's two sisters, ages 11 and 13, thought he had brown hair but never saw him, said Paulding County Sheriff's Detective Kyle Shelton.