9-Year-Old Girl Locked in Cage Was Trapped in Drug House

RACINE COUNTY, WI — The couple charged with locking a 9-year-old girl in a cage in the basement did so while maintaining a drug operation in the basement, authorities say.

Racine County deputies were dispatched to an elementary school in the Town of Norway in Racine County of a child abuse complaint.

The victim and another sibling were removed from the residence and placed into protective custody by Racine County Human Services.

Authorities were advised that a nine-year-old girl in fourth grade had come to school with a very short haircut. When the school counselor asked the student's teacher about it, the teacher told her it was apparently "punishment" from her grandmother for the girl cutting her own hair.

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Then the astonishing news was passed on to the counselor: the student said that her grandmother was also locking her in a cage at night.

Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling states, “I was sickened at what I witnessed last night. This by far, is one of the most disturbing and heart-wrenching cases of child abuse I’ve seen, it doesn’t get much worse than this.”

The following two caregivers were taken into custody for Causing Mental Harm to A Child, False Imprisonment and several other felony charges: Gale D. Lalonde, 47 Wind Lake and Dale A. Deavers, 48, from Wind Lake.

The counselor interviewed the girl, who said that her grandmother, Gail Lalonde, would lock her in an eight-by-four cage and lock it with a keyed lock.

The counselor said that the girl told her she was locked in the cage because she was going into medicine cabinets at home and destroying things. She added that she had contact with the girl and Lalonde previously due to the girl needing help with social and coping skills.

The counselor told police that Lalonde said her granddaughter is "psychotic" and eats inappropriate things like erasers and things that could be poisonous.

On Sep. 6, Investigators spoke with the social worker, who is a social worker for the Muskego-Norway school district.

Investigators learned that the girl had significant emotional trauma previous to this most recent incident, and that she had such significant emotional trauma in her early childhood that the girl felt continually concerned for her personal safety.

Over the course of her early years, the counselor learned that the girl had been placed under a kitchen table, restrained within a bathtub among others.

When deputies went to Lalonde's home, she told authorities when it came to locking her in the cage that, "yes, that is true ... she hurts animals, threatens to kill us, eats Ridex and cleaners. I am trying to keep her safe."

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image via racine county sheriff's office