Washington couple accused of starving, beating 8-year-old grandson, burning him with cigarettes
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VANCOUVER Washington (KPTV) — A Vancouver couple were arrested last week and charged with abusing their 8-year-old grandson, according to court documents.
In the probable cause document signed Dec. 1, 55-year-old Masterino Machuo and 51-year-old Refoela Refalopei are accused of starving and physically abusing the boy, along with taking him across state lines to hide the abuse.
According to the document, the case started on June 14, 2022 when a woman reported to police that her parents were abusing the then-7-year-old boy and burning him with cigarettes. However, Vancouver Police Department officers said they were unable to find the boy the day they visited the house.
When officers returned three days later, Refalopei told them the boy had left “with an auntie” sometime in 2021, and she didn’t know the woman’s name, address or phone number. According to the document, “an auntie took him” was repeated constantly by nearly all family members to investigators.
A Clark County judge ordered the boy to be taken into protective custody on June 27, 2022. The court order was served on July 15, 2022, and again, Machuo and Refalopei told officers that “an auntie took him.”
A month later, the document states that Machuo and another relative who worked for an airline company flew with the boy to Missouri and left him there.
“This occurred after numerous and emphatic attempts by CPS and VPD to locate [him] and the service of a court order…” the document states.
After the boy’s mother was found and interviewed in Guam by FBI agents on Feb. 15, 2023, sheriff’s deputies in Jackson County, Mo. were dispatched on Feb. 17 to an address in Jackson County, Missouri.
The boy was taken into protective custody and transferred to Washington state, where he was placed with “a series” of foster families, according to the document.
Investigators say he had scars on the tops of his feet, his neck, the sides of his head, his arms and between his fingers. Doctors also found evidence of a broken arm that had healed without medical care. The boy also told investigators that he had been starved at one point, and he threw up when allowed to eat again.
After almost a year in foster care, CPS recorded on Nov. 21, 2023 that the boy told his foster parents about abuse he’d suffered, according to the document.
On Dec. 1, Machuo and Refalopei were arrested and charged with first-degree assault of a child and first-degree custodial interference.
The pair made their first court appearances on Monday, and their formal arraignments are scheduled for Dec. 18.
