CINCINNATI -- A woman accused of taking part in the kidnapping and abuse of her boyfriend's two children lost custody of her own in 2006 and 2009, according to Hamilton County court documents.
Jamie Carver, 30, was charged Sept. 13 with helping to "discipline" boyfriend James Howell's 4-year-old sons by binding them to walls with duct tape and shoelaces and stuffing a sock in their mouths so they could not scream. Investigators left the apartment "deeply disturbed" by what they saw, according to Det. Jeanette Vaughn.
More than a decade earlier, representatives of Hamilton County Job and Family Services found that Carver and her now ex-husband kept their own child in an environment that presented an "immediate danger," with a fridge full of moldy food and holes in the floors and walls.
Two years later, another child was born and also removed from Carver's care due to "still unresolved issues of domestic violence, drug abuse and the parents' mental health status."
Both children remain in non-parental care today.
"That's what I don't understand," said Abdullah Mustafa, who cares for the building in which the abuse took place. "If she lost custody of her own two children, what is she doing with other people's children?"
The two children involved in the Sept. 13 charges against Carver and Howell were placed in foster care after their caretakers' arrest. Howell also faces charges of kidnapping and child endangerment; a third adult, Rowdy Warren, faces charges of obstructing justice in connection to the abuse.
