Overview
- Chantel Hayford and her boyfriend, Jerry Menees, were arrested after a search of a Potosi home, with court documents alleging a sustained pattern of abuse from January 2023 through December 2025.
- Authorities say the teens, ages 13 and 14, were locked in a chicken pen, shot with BB guns, forced to fight during an organized “fight night,” and made to try methamphetamine.
- Charging documents list for Hayford: four counts of child abuse, three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of domestic assault, and one count of sexual abuse.
- Menees is charged with three counts of domestic assault, two counts each of abuse or neglect of a child, kidnapping, endangering the welfare of a child, armed criminal action, and one count of unlawful use of a weapon.
- Both defendants are jailed without bond, with a bond hearing set for January 20, and officials have urged adults to take children’s reports of abuse seriously.