A 15-year-old Arizona boy who vanished this week had reportedly been locked inside a cramped, filthy section of an RV every night by his mother and stepfather, forced to relieve himself in bottles and spend hours in total darkness, according to authorities.
Ryker Lee was reported as a runaway on Tuesday. That same day, deputies from the Pima County Sheriff’s Department arrived at the home of his mother, 39-year-old Danielle Lee-Sharp, and her husband, 43-year-old Michael Menzie, and discovered living conditions officials described as unfit for children, according to an interim complaint reviewed by Law&Crime.
Three children lived at the property with Lee-Sharp and Menzie, including Ryker. The other two are ages 6 and 10, the complaint states.
Both adults now face three counts each of child abuse.
According to the complaint, deputies visited the home after Ryker’s disappearance was reported and were told by the couple that the teen normally slept outside the house in an RV rather than inside with the rest of the family. Menzie and Lee-Sharp reportedly agreed to let deputies search the vehicle.
Once inside, investigators say they found the RV split into two sections by a wooden door that had no doorknob. Screws driven into the door frame kept it from being opened from the opposite side, the complaint says.
“Ryker Lee had been confined inside a small, padlocked room within a recreational vehicle that lacked running water, restroom facilities, and air conditioning,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement obtained by Law&Crime.
The space where Ryker reportedly slept was roughly 6 feet by 5 feet, with two small windows, according to the complaint.
“[Lee-Sharp] stated that the swamp cooler for the RV broke,” the complaint reads. “No fan or swamp cooler or running water was located inside the room. There is no access to a restroom and multiple plastic bottles were located with possible urine inside which Danielle did confirm that [Ryker] does urinate in them. Spiders and spider webs were also observed near the box-spring where [Ryker] sleeps.”
Menzie allegedly admitted to investigators that the couple made a habit of padlocking Ryker inside the RV each night for several hours at a stretch. Lee-Sharp reportedly said she kept the key on her dresser inside the main house. The RV, according to police, had no electricity running to it.
Lee-Sharp also told investigators that while Menzie didn’t sleep in the RV himself, he sometimes dozed off in the other half of the vehicle while Ryker was locked in his section, the complaint says.
Court documents note that Ryker has Type 1 diabetes, and investigators allege that leaving him confined and unsupervised for hours in those conditions posed a real risk to his health.
Deputies who went inside the main house said they were hit with a strong smell of cat urine. The complaint describes flooring stained with urine and vomit, along with trash and clutter scattered so thickly that it was hard to walk through parts of the home.
The children’s bedroom reportedly had garbage and clothes piled up near the doorway. “The children had plastic mattresses with no bedding,” the complaint states. “Their closest bathroom had no sink and the toilet was turning black and brown from not being cleaned.”
In the master bedroom, deputies allegedly found cat feces stains across the floor. A mattress was reportedly placed directly on the bathroom floor, appearing to hold children’s bedding and stained yellow, having sat next to a litter box.
Investigators also reported finding a rifle sitting out in a closet, unsecured and easy to access, according to the complaint.
The kitchen, meanwhile, was allegedly filled with garbage and stuffed trash bags. Deputies said they found a hole in the kitchen floor from a leaking pipe, with the floor itself starting to sink in that spot.
Food inside the refrigerator had reportedly spoiled and begun to mold. Ants and spiders were seen throughout multiple rooms of the house, the complaint says.
The two younger children were placed into the custody of Arizona’s Department of Child Services. Authorities say the family has been known to child welfare agencies for several years.
Ryker was last spotted on foot on Sept. 22, near State Route 86 and State Route 286 in the community of Three Points, also called Robles Junction, at around 10 a.m., the sheriff’s office said.
“You know, we get runaways all the time, and you don’t see this kind of response from us typically,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told KGUN, a local ABC affiliate. “But when there’s a concern of life or death, his medical condition, then we’re going to step up our game.”
