Boy Lived in Cage, Wrote Letters

Christian Choate, Boy Who Died Locked In Cage, Wrote About Abuse And Desire To Die

Records of the Indiana Department of Child Services reveal that Christian Choate, a boy who authorities claim lived locked in a cage and died from savage abuse, wrote letters describing his situation and saying that he wanted to die.

According to the Chicago Tribune, DCS visited with the Choate family in Gary, Indiana more than a dozen times starting in 1999, investigating allegations of abuse and neglect. Authorities never discovered what prosecutors claim was the true depth of the misery in which young Christian lived.

Based on accounts from his sister and stepsister, Christian, who died in 2009 at age 13, spent much of the last year of his life locked in a three-foot-high dog cage, with little food and drink and few opportunities to leave. When he did get out of the cage, he endured savage beatings from his father Riley.

One night in April of 2009, Christian was too weak to keep his food down. His father allegedly beat him to the point of unconsciousness, then locked his limp body in the cage.

The next morning, his sister Christina found him dead.

According to investigators, Riley then buried the boy in a shallow grave, covered his body in concrete, and moved with Christina to Kentucky, where he threatened to harm her if she ever told anyone about his death. It would be two years before his body was found.

One of the reasons his absence wasn't noticed was that his stepmother, Kimberly Kubina, took him out of school, saying that he was being home-schooled.

The extent of that homeschooling was revealed in some letters found by DCS. When other children were out playing, Kubina would give Christian paper and tell him to write.

"Christian wrote of why nobody liked him and how he just wanted to be liked by his family,"a DCS document wrote, according to theChicago Sun-Times. "Christian stated that he wanted to die because nobody liked the way he 'acted.' Christian's writings detail a very sad, depressed child who often wondered when someone, anyone, was going to come check on him and give him food or liquid. Christian often stated he was hungry or thirsty."

In a still more disturbing twist, the Northwest Indiana Times reveals some of the assignments his stepmother gave:

Kubina wrote topics on top of some of the pages including, "Why do you want to play with your peter? Why do you still want to see your mom? Why can't you let the past go? What does it mean to be part of a family?" DCS records state.

Riley Choate and Kimberly Kubina have been charged with murder, battery, neglect of a dependent, confinement, obstruction of justice, moving a body from a death scene and failure to notify authorities of a dead body. They have both pleaded not guilty.

Boy Found Buried in Concrete

Christian Choate, Boy Found Buried In Concrete Died While Locked In A Cage, Sister Says

UPDATE:

Christian Choate's father Riley and his stepmother Kimberly Kubina were charged Tuesday with murder, battery, criminal confinement, and neglect of a dependent in the young boy's death. Kubina allegedly helped Riley Choate bury his son's body, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

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On May 4, authorities investigating a mobile home park in Gary, Indiana made a harrowing discovery. Buried under a thin layer of concrete was the body of a 13-year-old boy, believed to be Christian Choate.

Choate apparently died in April of 2009, but according to his sister, threats from his abusive father Riley kept the boy's death a secret for more than two years.

Only when Riley left their home three weeks ago did Christian's sister feel safe enough to approach authorities about her brother's death. And the account she gives is nothing short of chilling.

According to Christina Choate, young Christian was kept locked in a dog cage for the last year of his life, CBS-2 reports. He was let out of the cage only to eat and use the bathroom, and to endure brutal beatings from his father, who apparently used the cage to keep him from running away.

The Northwest Indiana Times, which has been covering the story since it broke, writes that one day Christina found her brother unresponsive in his cage. She placed a finger under his nose and found he wasn't breathing.

More from the Times:

After she made the harrowing discovery, she scrambled to find the key to the Master Lock that kept her brother trapped. She pulled him out of the cage and put her ear to his chest desperately trying to find a heartbeat.

"I couldn't hear anything," she said.

Then, she asked for help from her stepsister, who in turn called adults for help.

As they waited for adults to come home, Christina Choate frantically tried to revive her brother. She pumped his chest and used an electric air pump to try to get him air.

"I kept thinking, 'Oh my God, my brother is dead,'" she said.

When Riley came home -- as he would later tell police -- he dug a two-foot grave for his son, and buried him in lime, dirt and concrete, placing a Bible on his chest.

After Christian's death, Christina says Riley moved her to Kentucky, where she wasn't allowed to go to school or talk on the phone, until three weeks ago when he moved back to Indiana without her.

According to a Chicago Tribune story on the investigation, it was the boy's biological mother who called police ten days ago inquiring about Christian. She had long been separated from Riley, but presumably after hearing from Christina, she began to worry about his fate.

Investigators were led quickly to Riley, who admitted to burying the boy and willingly led them to his makeshift grave. "If I had to do it over, I'd have just called (police)," Choate told authorities, according to the Tribune. "But I was freaking out."

He did not, however, admit to having anything to do with causing the boy's death.

An autopsy showed that Christian suffered blunt force trauma to his body, internal bleeding and a skull fracture, according to a separate Times story.

Riley Choate is currently being held on charges of removing a body from a death scene, a felony, and misdemeanor failure to notify authorities of a dead body, CBS writes.

More charges, however, are expected later Tuesday.