Florida Mom Jailed for Tormenting Adopted 14-Year-Old Child

A Florida woman named Tracy Ferriter was sentenced to probation and house arrest for her role in the ‘Boy in the Box’ case. 

As a form of discipline for their adopted son’s dishonesty, theft, aggression against family and peers, and threats, the couple said that they confined him to an eight-by-eight-foot cage for hours on end each day. When the kid was a toddler, the Ferriters adopted him from Vietnam. He had Reactive Attachment Disorder and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

In February 2022, law enforcement apprehended Tracy and her husband Timothy following their son’s runaway confession. His defense was that he would prefer incarceration than returning to his religious Catholic parents. 

The youngster detailed his ordeal, which included quarantine from other parts of the home, subsistence on leftovers, and the use of a pail for toileting. He further said that his parents, who observed him through a Ring camera, had subjected him to physical punishment, including whipping, spanking with a belt, punches to the face, and spitting.

The detectives then discovered dozens of recordings depicting the youngster being tormented and locked up every day when they confiscated the Ring recordings. There was a video showing the victim being confined to his room after he was discovered with “stolen” chocolate cookies from the kitchen.

After relocating from Arizona to southern Florida in the fall of 2021, the family began to exercise abusive behavior. Previous abuse is unknown, but in Florida, it persisted for six weeks without interruption. 

After being found guilty, the father, Timothy, was sentenced to five years in state prison, followed by five years probation. 

After the father was tried and convicted, according to the lawyers who were defending Tracy, she would have been acquitted had the case gone to trial. However, her lawyer, Marc Shiner, claimed that her client opted to plead guilty in order to save her children from the ordeal of going through another trial and to provide “some peace for her family.” 

In addition to two consecutive five-year penalties for the other two crimes, Tracy was sentenced to ten years probation for the child abuse charge. Her other children and the victim are currently in foster care, and she is also ordered to attend anger management and parenting programs. She is also forbidden from contacting either of them.