A subsequent investigation of the incident and the boy's residence resulted in the arrest of the victim's mother Alize Seymore and her husband Tre on multiple counts of child abuse, according to the booking sheets filed for the two defendants.
A Florida couple is behind bars after the death of a 6-year-old boy.
Anthony Rouse passed away on April 24, two days after the Polk County Sheriff's Office and Polk County Fire Rescue responded to a report of a child drowning in a bathtub.
A subsequent investigation of the incident and the boy's residence resulted in the arrest of Anthony's mother Alize Seymore and her husband Tre on multiple counts of child abuse, according to the booking sheets filed for the two defendants.
Alize and Tre both claim they are innocent and Tre has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. Both told police that Anthony was in the bathroom alone when he drowned.
In addition to the abuse charges, Alize is also facing an additional charge of tampering with a witness after she allegedly told one of her children that she would have Tre choke him if he spoke to police about what he saw on the day of the drowning.
A deputy with the Polk County Sheriff's Office writes in the affidavit filed with the court that the child threatened by Alize witnessed Tre drowning Anthony.
ALIZE SEYMORE CRIMINAL AFFIDAVIT
During this interview [redacted] disclosed that his first CPT interview was not the truth because he was scared to tell the truth. [Redacted] was scared because Alize told him if he tells the truth [Tre] would go to jail and if [Tre] goes to jail she will choke [redacted]," reads the affidavit. "During the interview, [redacted] disclosed the victim got in trouble for stealing food, and as a result, Tre took the victim into the bathroom to go "swimming."
The affidavit says that the boy then told deputies that "swimming" means "drowning" and "drowning" means "holding the victim's head underwater."
Deputies also said that this child told them that Anthony was kept in a door cage and Alize would pay them or give them candy to beat up the boy. In addition, he said that Tre “performs a chokehold on all the boys to get them to go to sleep.”
TRE SEYMORE CRIMINAL AFFIDAVIT
The bathroom where Anthony drowned and the children's bedroom were all without electricity and the children's clothing and the walls of their room were covered in urine and feces, says the affidavit. Doors to these rooms all locked from the outside as well according to deputies.
"Alize and Tre frequently discussed with one another about willfully putting the victim into a dog cage as a form of torture and malicious punishment," states the affidavit. "Furthermore, Alize and Tre also used [the other children] as aides to help put the victim in the cage and hide the victim from people who would come over to the residence."
The affidavit later states: "Tre would single out the victim and 'take him swimming' as a form of torture and malicious punishment. The investigative findings above, coupled with the concerning observations of neglect noted at the incident location, show the on-going abuse and neglect perpetrated by Tre and Alize; ultimately, leading to the death of the victim."
Among the evidence collected were a series of text messages sent between Alize and Tre, including one sent the day before Antony drowned, when Alize wrote to her husband: "I wanna put him for adoption."
