When Gary Police found an 11-year-old girl wandering in an alleyway less than a day after she was reported missing, she told an officer she didn’t want to go home.
“Please don’t take me back there. My (relative) beats me,” she said.
Now, a couple has been charged in connection with the case.
Tishiya C. Hall, 32, of the 4100 block of Jefferson Street, was charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, a Level 3 felony. She is currently in custody, held without bail.
Jason C. Hall, 43, of Gary, is charged with domestic battery with serious bodily injury to a person under 14, neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, domestic battery with bodily injury to a person under 14 and domestic battery by means of a deadly weapon, all felonies, and Class A misdemeanor resisting law enforcement.
He has not been apprehended.
Tishiya Hall told officers she told the girl to clean up their overturned garbage can in the alley. When she got distracted by her younger child, the girl was no longer there. She reported the girl missing around 7 p.m. Feb. 24, saying she didn’t have a cellphone with her.
A 911 caller reported a child in an alley around 12 p.m. Feb. 25 near W. 43rd Avenue and Jefferson Street. The girl said she was waiting to get picked up, according to the affidavit.
She slept in an abandoned home a few blocks away the prior night, she said. A “lady” gave her a black coat to keep her warm, she said. Police took her to the hospital to get checked out.
At the hospital, the girl told an Indiana Department of Child Services caseworker that she ran away after overhearing Jason Hall tell Tishiya he would “whoop” her once more.
On Feb. 19, Jason Hall beat her after she got in trouble for talking during class, she said. He punched her in the head, then hit her repeatedly with an extension cord, according to the affidavit. The ordeal lasted at least two hours, both inside and in their backyard.
When a witness confronted him, he responded he “doesn’t care about the police,” the girl said.
When Tishiya later got home, and a witness said what happened, she sat down and watched TV, the girl told police.
She told her to ice her arms and kept her home from school the next day.
A week later, on Feb. 24, Tishiya told police she was “alarmed” by what she found that day on the girl’s cellphone. It was not detailed in the affidavit. She claimed her husband beat the child after she talked back to a teacher in school.
Initially, Tishiya lied to police, saying the witness didn’t say anything. She changed her story, saying the witness said they heard yelling and screaming in her home.
She denied she was trying to protect her husband or that she was afraid of him. She later admitted seeing the girl hurt, but didn’t take her to the hospital.
Just before 4:30 p.m. Feb. 25, police found Jason Hall on the 4100 block of Jefferson, walking to a vehicle in an orange work vest. When they activated their lights, he ran and jumped a fence, then disappeared.
Tishya Hall told a witness he had beaten the girl since she got suspended from school, according to the affidavit.
mcolias@post-trib.com
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