Deputies Investigating Abuse Of Avant Child, Ask For Public's Help

Osage County deputies are asking for your help to solve a child abuse case involving a 3-year-old in Avant.

Investigators say the child is doing okay now and is in DHS custody.

“I didn’t even recognize him,” said the child’s grandmother.  “I didn’t even recognize my own grandson, he was that bruised up.”

The Osage County Sheriff’s Office is working to figure out who hurt the child and they’re asking the public for help.

“I saw bruising all over his head, the truck of his body, his legs,” his grandfather said.  “He had swelling on his face.  He was filthy, dirty.”

The child’s grandmother hopes someone will come forward with information about what investigators say is a serious case of child abuse.

“We have a person of interest, but we haven’t developed enough probable cause to make an arrest,” stated investigator William Gee.

The grandmother says she saw the bruises after picking up her grandson in early June.  She says her granddaughter and her granddaughter’s friend brought the injured boy to her.

“They came running down the street with him screaming and crying that he had been beat up,” she said.

She says she never saw any adults and she called police and got help for the child.

Avant police handed the case over to the Osage County Sheriff’s Office, who say they are struggling to find witnesses, a location where the abuse may have happened, and a timeline of events.

“There are people there that know what’s happened.  There are witnesses that’s not been forthcoming,” said Gee.

The grandmother says she is continuing to speak about what happened in the hopes that someone will come forward.

“This person, they really need to be off the streets before they do this to another child and possibly worse,” she said.

Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the Osage County Sheriff’s Office or Bartlesville/Washington County Crime Stoppers at 918-336-2583.