A Missouri mother and her boyfriend are accused of severely abusing her children, including by shooting her 13- and 14-year-old sons with BB guns while they were locked in a chicken pen.
Chantel Hayford and Jerry Menees, both of Potosi, are charged with 24 felonies related to the “allegations of severe abuse and neglect,” the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said in a Wednesday, January 14 news release.
Hayford, 38, and Menees, whose age was redacted, were arrested on Tuesday, January 13, on charges including kidnapping, endangering the welfare of a child, abuse or neglect of a child, and domestic assault, according to the agency.
As part of a “pattern of ongoing abuse” the couple is accused of organizing “‘fight nights’ where the children were forced to fight one another,” beating Hayford’s sons, and giving the boys drugs and alcohol, according to the sheriff’s office and court documents viewed by Us Weekly.
Hayford also “traded” custody of her sons, as well as her 17-year-old daughter, to another adult in exchange for a phone and a phone plan in July 2025, according to a statement of probable cause. The adult is referred to as “the guardian” in the filing.
“(Hayford) signed Power of Attorney and had children moved into the guardian’s home with this agreement,” the statement says.
An attorney for Hayford could not immediately be reached for comment. Information on Menees’ legal representation was not immediately available.
In December, the sheriff’s office began investigating the couple after the state’s Division of Family Services alerted them to the abuse allegations.
During an interview with Hayford’s 14-year-old son at a child advocacy center, the teen said that his mother and Menees locked him and his brother in a chicken pen by screwing it shut, then shot them both with a BB gun, according to the probable cause statement. The teen said he was 13 when this happened. The teen also accused Menees of pointing an actual pistol at him and threatening to “blow his brains out.”
The boy detailed that Menees would regularly physically abuse him by punching and slapping him, and that Menees once put him in a headlock. Menees is also accused of giving him meth.
Hayford, the teen said, would “throw rocks at him” and would verbally abuse him, according to the probable cause statement.
His mother is also accused of giving him alcohol and drugs including marijuana and gabapentin.
From ages 13 to 14, the boy said in the interview that “he experienced a ‘great depression’ where he ate bugs, leaves, and would steal food,” the probable cause statement says. During the interview with his younger brother at the child advocacy center, the boy corroborated the story about Hayford and Menees confining them to a chicken pen and shooting at them, according to investigators.
The 13-year-old also detailed further physical abuse from his mother, and shared that he once saw her grope “his sister’s chest area,” the probable cause statement says.
Hayford is also facing one count of first-degree sexual abuse as a result, according to the sheriff’s office.
According to the probable cause statement, an adult woman who became the children’s “guardian” told law enforcement that she first met the siblings when “they walked into her house and were begging for food.”
After Hayford granted the woman custody of her children, the woman said she took them to a doctor’s office and they were found to be “severely underweight,” the statement says.
She also “said that the children were not ever enrolled in school or educated and therefore could not read or write,” the statement continues.
In an interview with KSDK, Washington County Sheriff Scott Reed said, “I don’t think I’ve even heard of a case like this. We never received a call to this residence before. Where they live is very rural.
Potosi, where Hayford and Menees live, is about a 70-mile drive southwest from St. Louis.
Hayford and Menees are in custody without bond, court records show. Their bond hearings are scheduled for January 20.
If you suspect child abuse, please call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or visit ChildHelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential, and the hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
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