Arrest warrants have been issued for the fire chief of Laramie County Fire District No. 1 and his wife for allegedly imprisoning and starving their 13-year-old adopted son.
Court records posted Friday show Darrick M. Mittlestadt and Angela Mittlestadt, both 49, are facing charges of aggravated child abuse and conspiracy to commit aggravated child abuse.
Laramie County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Brandon Warner said Monday the couple had not yet been arrested on the warrants.
The LCSO was contacted June 22 after staff of the Youth Development Center in Douglas reported to local police that an emaciated 13-year-old boy had been dropped off at their center.
“Douglas police officers noted that (the teen) was extremely thin and appeared severely malnourished,” the affidavit states. The teen’s “ribs, collarbones and other bones and joints were protruding and clearly visible on him due to how thin he was.”
The boy “also was missing much of the hair on his head,” according to an affidavit filed in the case.
The teen initially gave staff at the Youth Development Center another name and incorrect date of birth.
He told a Douglas police officer that, “I’m only allowed to eat one meal a day since there’s no point in giving me food,” the affidavit says.
During a June 23 forensic interview of the teen in Casper, he told a Child Advocacy Project interviewer that his mom, Angela Mittlestadt, had dropped him off and told him to knock on the door and tell them he “needed somewhere to live.”
When asked why he was told to do that, the teen replied, “I don’t know, she just told me that to tell them that for some reason.”
Bedroom Door Blocked
The boy described his living conditions at the Mittlestadt home as having his bedroom door blocked with heavy items from the outside so that he couldn’t leave his room, according to court documents.
He told his interviewer that he “wasn’t very nice and did stuff he shouldn’t have done such as wetting the bed and picking at himself.”
The teen said he was given white bread, ham and vegetables once a day along with “Zero Gatorade.” He was just getting one meal because of the way that he “behaved.”
A Laramie County Sheriff’s Office detective interviewed both parents June 23 after authorities took their younger adopted son, 6, into protective custody.
Angela Mittlestadt told the investigator that when she got the teen as a boy, he was homeless, malnourished and a “f***ed up kid with trauma.”
“I’m an idiot and thought I could help him,” she told the investigator,according to the affidavit. She alleged that he refused to do school, lacked feeling, remorse, empathy and “didn’t care about rewards or consequences.”
Angela Mittlestadt said the teen was malnourished because he refused to eat and rarely slept at night. She also said he would “pee” and defecate in his room instead of the bathroom.
She said she had not asked for help because she felt the teen was not “anyone else’s problem.”
When she awoke June 22 and smelled “poop,” she drove him to the center in Douglas.
She said when her husband was away working, it was “overwhelming” for her to deal with the teen and the younger boy. When she just had the younger boy, things were fine, she told the investigator.
‘I Failed’
Darrick Mittlestadt told the investigator that his wife had lost a family member several years ago and believed that adopting the two boys was how she “dealt” with that loss.
He said he and his wife fed the boy, but that he rarely slept. He said he was often away from home because of his job.
“I failed everyone, because I didn’t do my job,” he said.
The teen told authorities that items had been taken from his room and that he never left the house in Cheyenne except to shower or brush his teeth.
He told his interviewer that he had not been out of the house for two years and was not allowed to leave his room, watch TV, play with his brother or go to the fire station with his dad, the affidavit says.
Darrick Mittlestadt denied that the teen had been in the house for years. He said he would walk around the property with the boy and look for cactus, but that the child was so thin and weak he could not use a shovel to dig. So, he would dig cactus for him.
“Darrick acknowledged that (the teen) hadn’t been to a park, children’s museum or anything similar since they moved to Cheyenne almost two years ago,” the affidavit states.
He, too, said the teen lied about things like reading a book, completing schoolwork, or using the bathroom before urinating or defecating in his room.
During the interview at the Mittlestadt home, the investigator said he was shown the teen’s bedroom, and it was apparently recently cleaned with vacuum marks on the carpet. It had no “clutter” and the closet had crackers and protein shakes.
“When Darrick was asked about them, he explained that they were normally kept in the kitchen or another closet,” the investigator wrote. “They were used as a reward for (the teen) to engage in better behavior.
“Darrick never really explained why the crackers and protein shakes were currently in (the teen’s) closet.”
50 Pounds
On June 24, the affidavit states the teen was taken to Denver Children’s Hospital. When he arrived, he weighed 50 pounds and had undetectablelevel of vitamin D.
The affidavit states that he will have to remain in the hospital for weeks to gradually increase his caloric intake.
Doctors there told an investigator that if the teen had not been taken into custody his risk of death “would likely been elevated further,” the affidavit says.
Hospital officials told the investigator since arriving at the hospital, the teen is “eating appropriately and weight gain is expected.”
They believe his malnourishment has affected his bone growth and joint development, the affidavit states. They have noted no behavioral concerns.
An interview of Darrick Mittlestadt’s parents, who live in the Denver area, revealed they had not seen their adopted grandchildren at all since 2023 and have been “shut out” of their lives.
During 2023, they watched the now 13-year-old for one day a week. They said he had a healthy appetite and that “he was not a problem child at all for them.”
The grandfather told the investigator that his son recently confided he hadn’t seen the teen in a month due to his work schedule.
An interview of firefighters at the fire station reported they were aware the Mittlestadts had adopted two boys and that no one was really close to their family outside of work. They had seen the younger boy at the station, but estimated it had been more than a year since they had seen the teen.
“When someone had seen the (teen) with Darrick, (the teen) was very quiet and polite,” the affidavit states.
Always In Room
An interview with a former employee at the fire district who knew the Mittlestadts and visited their home told the investigator that during about a dozen home visits, the teen would almost always be in his room. The younger boy would be active and playing.
The former employee said the younger boy also visited the fire station with his dad, while the older boy rarely did.
“They were always given the impression that the teen wanted to be in his room by himself,” the affidavit states.
The teen could be seen on a monitor and Angela Mittlestadt never accepted opportunities for the teen to do activities with the former employee’s child.
Neighbors interviewed said they had seen the Mittlestadts out on their property with one boy and most thought the family had just one son.
A neighbor who had accidentally received their mail and taken it to the house saw a boy that was about 11-13 years old.
The teen seemed polite and soft spoken, the affidavit says.
The neighbor also recalled a time the teen ran out of the house upset and yelling but characterized it as “pretty typical of a boy his age to have a disagreement with his parents.”
A call to the Laramie County Fire District No. 1 board chairman was not immediately returned. A call to Darrick Mittlestadt also was not immediately returned.
Both the aggravated child abuse and conspiracy to commit aggravated child abuse charges carry potential penalties of 25 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
