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March 12, 2023 15 mins
Murder + Horrific = Murderific.


Enjoy this older Patreon episode on the main feed.

Charlie Bothuell V, at age 12, went missing from his Detroit home in June of 2014. We tell you about the abuse he endured at the hands of his horrible father and step-mother. An 11-day search ensued - join us to find out what happened to young Charlie Bothuell.

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SOURCES:
https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/2014/10/10/timeline-of-the-charlie-bothuell-disappearance/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/11/the-ordeal-of-charlie-bothuell-the-missing-boy-found-in-family-basement/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/judge-no-torture-in-case-of-detroit-boy-found-in-basement/

https://www.essence.com/news/update-missing-detroit-boy-speaks-out-about-abuse/

https://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/2015/05/charlie_bothuell_describes_11.html
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to Murderific True Crime podcast hostedand created by Bernadette from the state of
Maine. We have everything a truecrime connoisseur could ask for. Remember murder
plus horrific equals Murderific. Welcome toMurderific True Crime Podcast. November Patreon story

(00:46):
the disappearance of Charlie Bothwell the Fifth. This twenty and fourteen story comes out
of Detroit, Michigan, when twelveyear old Charles Bothuil the Fifth was missing
for eleven days, but he wasfound in a sensational, big media type
way. The story involves child abuseand neglect, so be warned. Let's

(01:11):
begin by talking about the family unit. Charles the Fifth, a twelve year
old, was living in a Detroitsuburb in a condo with his father,
Charles the Fourth, and stepmom MoniqueDillard Bothuell. We will call the boy
Charlie from here on out to makeit easy to tell the story and so
it won't be confusing with the foursand the fives. Charlie also had two

(01:34):
younger half siblings in the home.Charlie had to move into his father and
stepmother's home in November two and eleven. His mother said that he was having
issues at school and she found ithard to control him. She felt that
he would do better at his dad'shome. After only a month, his
father, Charles the Fourth, pulledhim out of school to home school him.

(01:57):
Charles only had two books to learnwith with his dad teaching him.
When he finally was re enrolled inpublic school in two and fourteen, he
was academically behind all the other children. His father, Charles made him sleep
in the living room. He didn'teven have a bed. In two and
twelve, little Charlie ran away fora few hours before being returned by police.

(02:23):
His father used discipline all the time, and by discipline, I mean
his father used a PVC pipe tobeat him. Every time his father would
beat him, he was hit inthe head, arms, thighs, and
feet until his skin would split open. Charlie was put on a strict regiment
of exercise because his father and stepmomsaid that he was overweight, and if

(02:46):
you look at his pictures, hewas not. The exercise was a way
to control Charlie and was abuse.Charlie's daily workouts were one hundred pushups,
two hundred setups, hundred jumping jack'stwenty five arm curls with twenty five pound
weights and five thousand of revolutions onan elliptical machine twice a day. And

(03:10):
if Charlie didn't finish all of thiswithin the time limit that he was given,
he was made to start over.His stepmother, Monique, would watch
him do the exercises when his fatherwasn't there and would report on Charlie when
he didn't do it all exactly ashis father wanted. Sometimes Charlie couldn't do

(03:32):
the whole workouts because he would bephysically sore from his frequent beatings with a
PVC pipe. He also would besore from doing the workouts every day.
Because he couldn't do the workouts withinthe one hour limit, it would take
him four hours sometimes to do theroutine, which would start at five am.
By the way, so imagine you'redoing this routine. You don't do

(03:54):
it in time. Your Dad's like, start again. Oh, you don't
do it in time. Art again. His stepmother would join in on the
beatings, punching and choking Charlie andhe would promise to do better, which
is very heartbreaking to hear, butit would never be enough for them.
His dad often said that he wouldsend Charlie to military school in another country,

(04:18):
and his stepmom told Charlie if shekilled him that no one would know
because he was homeschooled. Charlie wasnot allowed to leave the home, so
we had no friends to tell orany school officials to tell. He said
he didn't tell his mother because hethought she wouldn't believe him. He was
very depressed and he just gave up, and he thought, this is my

(04:40):
life now. On June fourteenth,twenty fourteen, Charlie was doing his daily
workout and didn't do it exactly correct. Monique, his stepmother, thought he
had lied about finishing the workout.When he had not her response, she
brought Charlie to the basement and toldhim to go behind toads and boxes,

(05:02):
a makeshift type of barricade. Moniquesaid, quote, stay here, shut
up, stay quiet, and don'tsay anything no matter what you hear.
And I know where the sharp knivesare. I can make you disappear.
Charlie had to sneak upstairs when itwas quiet in the house, and he
would grab dry cereal because no onewould notice that he used the basement toilet

(05:27):
while he was down there, thoughthe basement wasn't locked. He was afraid
of being punished if he came out, so he stayed put. It's not
clear if Charles the fourth his dadknew that his son was in the basement.
He may have believed that Charlie hadrun away again. On June sixteenth,
Charles the Fourth reported his son Charliemissing. He said that there were

(05:49):
no problems at home. The homewas searched multiple times. Police asked the
public for help. On June seventeenth, and on June twenty first, Charles's
dad had taken a polygraph test bythe FBI and the results came back inconclusive.
Monique declined to take the test.Police looked at the text messages between

(06:13):
the couple, where the father wasangry that Charlie didn't finish the workout,
saying that Charlie lacked discipline and workethic. He had no hope for Charlie
and said, quote, let's getthe money and get him gone unquote.
And that's a tough sentence to decipher, like, well, exactly are you

(06:33):
saying about your child? The FBIwas now involved on the case. On
June twenty fifth, eleven days afterLittle Charlie would go missing. The father,
Charles would go on national TV onthe Nancy Gray Show, speaking about
his son's disappearance. At the sametime, police had brought dogs into the

(06:55):
Bothel home to search again, andlo and behold, they would find Charlie
alive, shivering and hungry behind theboxes in the basement. And I'm going
to play this Nancy Grace audio foryou right here. It's a little bit
telling for sure, out to thefather of the missing twelve year old boys.

(07:17):
Charlie with me is his father orCharlie Bothel. Charlie, we are
getting reports that your son has beenfound in your basement, sir, mister

(07:38):
Bothel, or are you Yeah,we are getting reports that your son has
been found alive in your basement.What yes, that's what if? If
you can hand me that wire veryquickly. Yeah, we're getting that right
now from from Yeah. How howcould your son be a live in your

(08:00):
basement? Uh? Oh, Ihave I have no idea. Now,
this is just a report that weare hearing out of Detroit that we're trying

(08:26):
to confirm. Everybody in New Yorkplease get on it. Let me know
when we get Charlie Langton from ww J Uh, Sir, did you
check your basement? I check mybasement. The FBI check my basement,
the Detroit Police check my basement.My wife checked my basement. UM,

(08:48):
I've been down there several times.We've all been checking out. Okay,
this, this is what we arehearing that the missing twelve year old boy
has been found alive and well inits father's basement. Now, this is
what I don't understand why you guyswould have reported he's missing, and all

(09:09):
our viewers, we've been we've beenon the lookout for him. We searched
that entire house repeatedly, the FBIsearch, Detroit Police search, We've all
searched. Oh god, they broughtdogs. Everything. Everybody has searched.
What Okay, my son, haveyou checked your cell phone? Um?

(09:33):
My cell phone is dead. Um, I'm and I actually getting down here.
I left it in the car chargingbecause it had it had um,
it had died on me. Okay, and you're telling us that you searched
your basement and your wife searched yourbasement. I searched my basement, My
wife searched my basement. The FBIsearched my basement. The Detroit police searched

(09:58):
my basement. Um, we've allsearch my basement multiple times. I mean
we yes, they had the dogssearch that we we've all searched the basement.
The dog searched my basement. Ohgod. Okay, well, you
know what, I'm going to giveyou a chance to call home and see
what you can find out. Charlielankedin w w J News. Charlie,

(10:24):
we're getting reports tonight that the boyhas been found alive and daddy's basement.
Yeah, Nancy, were just we'rejust getting word right now and we've just
basically confirmed that, Yeah, theboy has been found alive in the father's
basement, and we're just getting reportsright now that that is true. And
literally it just break moment both momentsago. Now, why the boy,

(10:48):
Why the father didn't know about thatfor the last eleven days, What did
the child was afraid? If therewas any other collusion amongst anyone, what's
the child? All of those arequestions that we are trying to get reports
on right now. We understand andthat that we're sending news crews right now
to the scene. O're also understandingthat the police chief is going to make
get another announcement that should be comingup a lit bit later on. But
yes, the boy has been foundalive in his father's basis. In my

(11:13):
opinion, it seems like Charles thefourth the father, is acting and he
doesn't seem at all surprised. Itseems to me that at some point he
knew where his son was. Whetherhe had to play along or they were
going to hurt their son more,it's hard to tell. Sadly, Little
Charlie even told police that he hadheard them looking for him, but he

(11:37):
was so afraid of his stepmother thathe didn't dare to come out. Charlie
was taken to a hospital, visiblythinner. He asked one thing, quote,
is my father here? When policeinformed him that he wasn't, he
said good. His mother would becalled and told that her son was alive,

(11:58):
and she went to get him.In the hospital. Bruises were found
all over Charlie and he told thepolice about the abuse that he had endured
for years. Charlie went to livewith his biological mom again, and Charlie's
half siblings were actually removed from Charlesthe fourth and Monique's care. Charles the
fourth and Monique pled not guilty tochild abuse and torture charges. In April

(12:26):
two thousand and fifteen. The hearingbegan with Charlie being the star witness.
He spoke of the abuse, sayinghe was so upset that he almost killed
himself in two thousand and thirteen.He felt hopeless. In June two thousand
and fifteen, the torture charges againstthe couple were dropped. In January two

(12:46):
thousand and sixteen, Monique pled guiltyto get her children back from foster care,
but Charles the Fourth decided to stillgo to trial, denying all abuse
of Charlie. He would be facingup to ten years I found guilty of
second to great child abuse. Instead, he changed his mind, deciding to
plead guilty to a misdemeanor child abusecharge and got probation for eighteen months.

(13:13):
You heard that right. He abusedhis child for years and he got eighteen
months probation. Charles the Fourth wouldnot be allowed to see or talk to
Charlie ever again because of a nocontact order. Charles the Father tried to
sue Nancy Grace for defaming his nameon Live TV when she called him a

(13:33):
garden variety sadist. He said helost his jobs because of things that Nancy
Grace said on her show. Buthe lost that court case and it was
dismissed. And that's it. Thatis the short story of Charlie Bothwell and

(13:54):
his disappearance. And it's a reallysad story about how when child becomes abused
like that, they become so depressedand they feel so helpless because they feel
like no one will help them.But luckily he made it out alive.
Thanks for listening. If you guyshave any ideas or things you want me

(14:15):
to cover, doesn't even have tobe true crime, just let me know
I'd love to do it. Bye. You've reached the end of another Murderific
true crime podcast. Ways to supportus go to buy meacoffee dot com slash
Murderific. You can also find uson Patreon, where we have over forty

(14:37):
bonus shows and the regular podcast earlyand ad free plus March. If you
enjoy Murderific, leave us a reviewin iTunes. Until next time, we
will be executing podcasts one crime ata time.
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