June Candelario Kept Grandson Locked in Dog Kennel
June Candelario, 61, of Commerce City, Colo. pleaded guilty to child abuse charges. She kept her grandson locked inside a dog kennel for up to 10 hours a day while she was at work in the evenings.Arrested last June, Candelario told social services that she thought that keeping the boy in the kennel was better than letting him walk the streets. Candelario’s shift was from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. She opened the kennel to let him out around 3 a.m. when she got home from work. He was kept in the kennel four nights a week. Candelario worked with the sheriff’s office in Golden counseling inmates with emotional problems.
Police believe that the abuse had been going on since the boy’s grandfather died four years ago. A school classmate overheard the boy talk about being locked in the kennel, and told his mom. She then notified authorities.
Candelario had a decent job and couldn’t afford a babysitter or find someone to take the boy four afternoons and evenings a week? Did she ever try to get her shift changed? What the hell was she thinking?
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16 opinions for June Candelario Kept Grandson Locked in Dog Kennel
julie
Feb 25, 2007 at 2:23 pm
I have no way to imagine what she was thinking because in the world I come from grandparents act as if their sole purpose in life is to treat their grandchildren like queens and kings. My grandma was so fun with me and my cousins when we were growing up. She always made it seem like the only reason she ever had her kids was so that someday she could have the grandkids. Now my mom acts the same way toward my son; she lavishes him with presents and plays with him as often as she can.
But, I don’t know. That’s my world. Clearly, on whatever planet this bitch is from, they do things differently. We need to use our nuclear arsenal to blow that planet up because this kind of thing is sick and wrong in so many ways.
Carissa
Feb 26, 2007 at 11:51 am
I find it rather disturbing that this ‘grandmother’ worked for the SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT couseling other’s with emotional problems! C’mon, people. What the hell is wrong with society today?
Celia
Feb 26, 2007 at 2:23 pm
This person was counseling inmates with emotional problems??? Does anyone else see the irony here?
gb
Feb 26, 2007 at 8:08 pm
hmmm!
its cause of people like her, that lots of emotional damaged people end up in jail
MsRSverio
Feb 27, 2007 at 2:42 pm
The 1st thought that comes to mind is, how many neighbors, friends, family offered to help her out knowing that she had to work & take care of a child…? Not condonning what she did … Just noticing how so many of us seem to gloat on findig wrong… How different would it be if we noticed when others are stretched to the point of insanity…and did something to prevent these kinds of situations…”It takes a village”…
If not for Grace, we all trip and fall.
Let’s have a positive site that showcases the millions of people who are doing good, and attract more of the same…
julie
Feb 27, 2007 at 5:20 pm
I have to work and take care of a kid, and I still manage to do it without putting him in a kennel. Or duct taping him. Or starving him, beating him, etc etc.
I see your point, and I’m not trying to be an asshole. I think the reason most of us are so appalled by this woman’s behavior is because we know how hard it is to work and care for kids…and yet we have managed to do it. You can call it ‘grace’ if you want to, I guess. Or you could call it love, compassion, self-discipline, and a whole lot of other things.
Besides, this kid–OK, I don’t know how old he is, but it says he was 5′4″, so this is no toddler. By the time I was 5′4″ I was a big enough girl that I could do a lot of taking care of myself. Maybe she couldn’t/should’nt have just left him home alone (out of the kennel), but it’s not like she had to give him constant attention with changing his diapers and spoon-feeding him for crying out loud.
No, sorry. No excuse for it.
lillie hudson
Feb 27, 2007 at 7:01 pm
I DO NOT UNDER STAND WHY A NOTHER HUMAN WOULD TREAT ANY ONE LIKE THAT IN GOD’S WORD HE SAID VEGES IS MY SAYTH THE LORD AS ACHRISTIAN I WILL PRAY FOR HER I DO BELIVE SHE SHOULD PAY FOR DOING THAT TO THAT CHILDIM TIRED EVERY TIME A CHERMINAL DOES A TERRIABLE ACT THEY ALWAYS PUT A LABLE ON THEM LIKE THEY ARE MENTALY ILL WHY DONT THEY JUST SEE IT FOR WHAT THEY REALY ARE MEAN AND FULL OF THE DEVIL WHEN WE ALL STAND BEFOR CHRIST WE CANT SAY THAT WELL ITS BECAUSE OF MY PARENTS OR SOME ONE ELSE GOD SAID WE WILL ANSWER FOR OUR OWN SIN
Ghisline
Feb 28, 2007 at 6:07 am
I somewhat agree with MsRSverio. What she did is appalling and very wrong, however how many of us, our helping the single mom’s, grandparents around us??? When you see that they are in need, are you offering to take their kids in at no cost? Just to help them out? I am fortunate enough to have been able to be home for two years, while my hubby worked, so I took my friends kids in all the time at no cost and you know what?! others couldn’t believe that I would do this! How hard is it to open your home to others out of the goodness of your heart. I just hope by reading what this kid went thru, it will open the eyes of some readers and get them to open up their homes to help friends, neighbours in need and not for their own purpose, but just to help one another get ahead in this chaos, we call life.
Cynthia Alexander
Feb 28, 2007 at 11:40 am
I cannot and will not understand that this is not a hate crime. She showed nothing but hatred to her grandson. Life in prison would still be to kind of a punishment and more benefits than she gave her grandson. Please tell me how the dog lived if the boy lived in the dog kennel?
julie
Feb 28, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Whoa, whoa. We have no indication that this woman would have asked for/accepted help. Are you seriously telling me that nobody could have watched her kid? There are many facts we do not know about this situation, but I am finding it very difficult to believe that her thought process was something like, “Boy, if someone would come in here and offer to take care of this boy for free, then maybe I could stop locking him in a dog kennel and withholding food and drink from him. Gee, if only my neighbors were kinder to me, then I could treat my grandson as if he were a human being.”
I agree that neighbors and family member should help each other out. You don’t know that no one ever offered help, and I am quite sure someone would have had they known she was locking her grandson up like an animal. She is still the one responsible for this; sometimes people don’t know you need help and don’t know to offer and you have to ask. And when it is offered you have to accept it. And, even if you have to break your own fucking back to find a way to do it, you have to treat kids better than this.
How Awful
Feb 28, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Lets pretend this boy is a really unruley teen. I’m 5′3 as a grown woman, so this may be a good guess on his age. Anyway, let’s pretend he’s a huge trouble maker and he really needed to be locked up and she couldnt find someone to watch him. Again, we’re thinking extreme here -
Why not put a lock on the bathroom door and leave the kid with food, water, toilet and maybe some reading and study materials or some such to amuse himself? You see, even if he was a huge trouble maker who truly needed to be locked up when unattended there is still no excuse to put the kid in a DOG KENNEL! I wont even put my DOG in one of those things.
To the person asking why no friends or neighbors offered help, that is not thier responibility! I have seen the village and I do not want it anywhere near my family!
missy
Feb 28, 2007 at 11:38 pm
What happens to an locked up person in the event of a fire? It is not humane to lock up an unattended child under any circumstances. A troubled child needs more attention, not less.
jacey
Feb 28, 2007 at 11:55 pm
First and last time to this site as my heart breaks too much to take it in. I’m so tired of excuses for people that harm or kill children. I’m sick of copycats (be like Andrea! Kill the children, phone 911 and confess!), I’m sick of knowing that innocent children are hurt every day. We need strict punishment to send a message to these would-be criminals. I’m not a hateful person by nature, but I do, with no regret, hate, fully hate those that even think of harming a child. When my sweet three kids are older, I intend to work in an arena towards protecting children. I’d like to take this anger and turn it into something good. Otherwise I could end up ranting like a loon on a blog at 1am. Oh…
Bob Thomas
Mar 1, 2007 at 10:42 pm
I’m with my friend Cynthia, this is hateful to a child, she’s pretty well f—-d the kid up for life, it’ll take some long term counseling to help the poor guy. Cynthia would know, she works with and gives her heart to troubled kids. I’m a 49 year old guy, ride motorcycles, shoot, etc., and this site makes me want to puke. Not because it’s bad or anything, because having lost my oldest son at 17 and have my youngest in harm’s way 24/7 in Iraq, I appreciate my kids and know how heartbreaking it is to lose them. Were my wife and I great parents? No, we made mistakes, but we love our boys and gave it our best. I can’t understand where this creepy bitch was coming from. Oh, and an aside to Lillie Hudson, I’m by no means a perfect human being, but I am bi-polar and clinically depressed, and I don’t think I’m more possesed by the devil than most people. You might want to get a serious education on mental illness before you spout things that aren’t true. All it means is that for some reason-low seratonin levels, whatever, your brain isn’t functioning right and something comes unwired. Many times meds will help that and counselling. I think it is rarely an excuse for criminal behavior, though sometimes it can, because it can really screw up your head, but Satan has little to do with it. If you really believe that, you need to get the facts, because you are very wrong.
brian
Apr 5, 2007 at 10:01 am
o.k. ….the stupid woman should of looked for another job….I myself am a single father of 2 boys….and I have a coke addicted ex-wife who has only seen her children once in 5 years…..
and what’s this crap about mental illness….most people use that to “claim” they have problems….if she didn’t want responsibility than give the child up for adoption…..what a self-centered cruel person….
oh…and to bob thompson and lillie hudson ….I am a born again christian also….yes, there are some people who are possessed of the devil….yet some of them have a chemical imbalance physically and either need medicine or they need to ask the LORD to heal them….my ex claims she is bi-polar/schizophrenic…yet she has nothing to do with her children….I appluad you bob for the fact that you loved your children and didn’t leave because of your bi-polar state…most people I know use that as a cop out to not raise their children or to throw them unto other family members all the time…..it all boils down to some people don’t take responsibility and are so self-centered that all they see are themselves…..
Ace
May 21, 2007 at 10:49 pm
There are alot of facts about this case that many of you either don’t know or have overlooked. I don’t approve of what she did however, I can see how all of this transpired. First the boys father didn’t care enough to be around. Then the boys mother, the grandmothers daughter is killed in a car accident. Then the boys CLOSE uncle, the grandmothers son, dies in a skiing accident. Then the boy is with his grandfather, the grandmothers husband, when he dies of a heartattack. The boy is going through normal adolecent grieving. The grandmother is grieving also and taking care of the grandson. The grandson begins running away, hanging out with bad people, getting in trouble both in and out of school, he gets very aggressive with the grandmother. She reaches the end of her rope, doesn’t know what else to do to help straighten this kid that she did trully love, out. In her mind, this was a justified act. Through her love for him, the depression she was going through, the grieving, the fear of his violent outbursts, and just wanting to hold on to the one person she had left. She didn’t want to lose him too. This made sense to her. Yes we all see it as cruel and wrong. However, I think washing a kids mouth out with soap is cruel and wrong but, some parents justify it in their minds. This was nothing more than that. The woman who killed her kids because “a spider told me to.” Has justified the reason in her mind and really didn’t see anything wrong with her actions. That doesn’t make them right. Don’t forget through all your hatred for people to see that they are humans also. She will pay for this mistake more than any jail could punish her. If you see her, or people like her, try and forgive them. Be the better person and not judge a person by their actions, we all make mistakes. Some more grave than others but mistakes all the same.
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