Two women face a combined 22 criminal counts, including sexual battery and child neglect, after Florida authorities say four children spent six years confined to the sleeper cab of a big rig traveling between Atlanta and Miami.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier held a press conference Tuesday in Kissimmee to announce the arrests of Keysha Monique Epps, 51, of Atlanta, and Tamra Marshon Stewart, 37, of Jacksonville. The children, two boys and two girls, were between five and nine years old when the alleged confinement began, the New York Post reported. Uthmeier described the case as one of the most disturbing his office has ever handled.
The children received no schooling, no regular meals, no medical or dental care, and no showers during the years they were locked inside the truck cab, Uthmeier said. While the adults stopped at truck stations to use restrooms and clean up, the kids stayed behind, sealed inside what the attorney general called a "rolling dungeon."
Uthmeier laid out the allegations in blunt terms. Stewart sexually abused the two girls, he said. When the boys tried to intervene or told Epps what was happening, both boys were physically abused in retaliation.
Uthmeier told reporters at the press conference:
"The evidence makes clear, the girls were sexually abused by Stewart. The boys watched it, when they would confront Stewart or report it to Epps, they would be physically abused themselves and injured."
He described the children's daily conditions as relentless deprivation:
"They were malnourished, they weren't frequently fed, they weren't cleaned, they weren't given showers."
Court records referenced in the case describe one child who burned herself badly with cooked noodles inside the truck. Neither Epps nor Stewart sought medical attention for the injury. The child was left with a permanent scar. Fox News reported that one child later told investigators, "There was a lot of blood."
A detective who worked the case reported that the children walked with an unnatural gait, a physical consequence of years spent cramped inside a truck cab with no room to move normally.
Stewart faces ten counts: two counts of sexual battery by a parent, two counts of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child under 12, two counts of battery of a child by expelling certain fluids or materials, two counts of child neglect without great bodily harm, and two counts of child neglect causing permanent disfigurement. Under Florida law, capital sexual battery charges, when the victim is under 12, can carry the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
Epps faces twelve counts: two counts of sexual battery by a parent, two counts of lewd or lascivious molestation of a child under 12, two counts of child neglect without great bodily harm, two counts of childhood neglect causing permanent disfigurement, and four counts of failure to report child abuse. Those four failure-to-report counts reflect the allegation that Epps knew what Stewart was doing to the girls and did nothing to stop it or alert authorities.
The charges reference "sexual battery by a parent," though the precise relationship between the two women and the four children, whether biological, custodial, or otherwise, has not been publicly clarified by authorities. Investigators described the pair's conduct as a "committed, willful failure or omission to provide a child with the care, supervision, and services necessary to maintain the child's physical and mental health."
Uthmeier said investigators received a tip that led them to make "observations" and ultimately intervene to remove the children from the truck. He did not specify which agency conducted the investigation or the nature of the tip. Both women were arrested on August 6, according to Fox News. The attorney general did not name the children or disclose their current ages.
Asked about the children's condition since the arrests, Uthmeier acknowledged the road ahead is long.
"They are safe, I think they've got a long road to recovery. They are going to need a lot of help, a lot of therapy, lot of prayer."
The children suffer from what Uthmeier described as "severe infirmities" beyond the visible injuries. The full scope of the physical and psychological damage has not been publicly detailed. Their current custody or placement status has not been disclosed.
Cases of prolonged child abuse and exploitation continue to surface across the country. A former New Hampshire lawmaker was recently sentenced to 33 years in federal prison for child sexual exploitation, a reminder that predators operate in every corner of American life, including elected office.
The alleged timeline stretches back to approximately December 2019. For roughly six years, the truck moved between Atlanta and Miami while four children lived inside its cab. They had no classroom, no doctor, no dentist, and, if the charges hold, no adult willing to protect them.
Uthmeier described the truck as a prison on wheels, where the accused kept the children locked away from any outside contact while they drove commercially across state lines.
"The evidence shows that the truck would, at times, hit a truck station where the adults would go to the restroom, they might take a shower, but they would leave the kids locked in this rolling dungeon."
The attorney general framed the case as a test of Florida's commitment to protecting children. "Let me be clear, here in Florida we have zero tolerance for anybody that wants to hurt kids," he said.
Broader national conversations about child protection have intensified in recent months. Federal prosecutors have pursued high-profile exploitation and trafficking cases, and advocates have pushed for stronger safeguards even in industries like entertainment, where calls for better protections for minors have grown louder.
Several key questions remain unanswered. Neither the investigating agency nor the court handling the case has been publicly identified. No pleas have been entered. Whether any other adults were aware of the children's situation, at truck stops, weigh stations, or anywhere else along the Atlanta-to-Miami corridor, is unknown.
Uthmeier called the case "one of, if not the most, horrific that my team has ever had to work on."
Four children spent years locked inside a moving truck while the system that should have found them didn't. The adults who were supposed to care for them stand accused of unspeakable cruelty. Florida says it has zero tolerance for people who hurt kids. Now the courts get to prove it.
