Footage has re-emerged courtesy of TikTok of the shocking moment a dad found out his missing son was in his basement while doing a TV interview.
The 12-year-old boy had been missing for 11 days, leaving father utterly shell-shocked when the presenter told him reports that he was in the basement. Take a look at the bizarre TV clip here:
In an interview with Nancy Grace for HLN, father Charles Bothuell IV was lost for words when asked how his son Charles Bothuell V could be alive in the confines of their own home.
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The presenter pushes him on whether he even checked the basement.
He said: "I've searched the basement, my wife has searched the basement, the FBI has searched the basement, the Detroit Police searched my basement.
"We've all searched my basement multiple times."
After the interview, Charles Bothuell IV was bombarded by the press as he returned home, saying that reports he knew his son was in the basement all along as 'absurd'.
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A police investigation followed and they found that the 12-year-old boy was never lost at all - and was just hiding from his father and stepmother, Monique Dillard-Bothuell.
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When Charles Bothuell V was found, he admitted that he hid in the basement because he was scared of the reaction his father was going to have when he realised he hadn't exercised.
In April 2015, the couple were arrested and charged with torture and second-degree child abuse.
The torture charge was later dismissed in court, if proven, the couple could have faced life sentences.
At the trial in 2016, Bothuell IV pleaded guilty to fourth-degree child abuse in exchange for the removal of the second-degree child-abuse charges.
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Prosecutors revealed that Bothuell V was very thin and had marks on his body when he was found.
Bothuell IV admitted to beating his son with a PVC pipe and handed 18 months of probation and mandatory anger management classes.
He also lost custody of his son and was no longer allowed to have further contact with him. His wife, Dillard-Bothuell reportedly accepted a plea deal too, but the details of this were not made public.
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As the footage has appeared on social media once again, users have been giving their reactions, with some not familiar with the story questioning whether it is real.
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One commenter said: "Wait this is real ? There's no way."
A second added: "If he had no idea why didn't he run off and go home."
And a third said: "He definitely knew he was in there."
Topics: US News