Two people have been arrested in Jacksonville, Florida, after investigators say four children were confined to the cab of a semitruck for nearly six years, deprived of schooling, medical care and, at times, the freedom to leave the vehicle to use a toilet.
The case came to light through a separate sexual-abuse investigation, and the two defendants now face different sets of charges arising from the same household.
Keisha Monique Epps, 51, the children's mother and a long-haul truck driver, was booked into the Duval County jail on four counts of child neglect. Her fiancé and co-defendant, Tamra Stewart, 37, faces charges of capital sexual battery.
Both are from Georgia, and the allegations, drawn from a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office arrest report, describe conditions that a detective said had left the children physically affected after years inside the truck.
What the Arrest Report Describes
According to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office report, the four children had lived in the cab of the semi truck since December 2019, sharing a single bunk and sleeping curled up because they could not fit lying flat. They were rarely allowed out of the cab, the report says, even when they needed to use the restroom, and were poorly fed and denied adequate movement or exercise.
The report states the children did not attend school, with no record of formal education since November 2020, and were instead directed to a mobile app.
🚨I HAVE NO WORDS…
— Matt Van Swol (@mattvanswol) August 15, 2026
Florida police have just found FOUR CHILDREN who were CAGED IN THE CAB of a semi-truck… FOR SIX YEARS.
They were confined so long THEY FORGOT HOW TO WALK normally, police say the man who kept them there se*ually abused them... then punched them in the head.… pic.twitter.com/vXu4oXTkm3
It also documents an absence of routine medical and dental care; in one instance described in the report, a child suffered severe burns from cooked noodles, received no professional treatment, and was left with permanent scarring.
When a detective first encountered the children, the report notes, they were walking with an unnatural gait that investigators attributed to years of confinement in the vehicle.
Epps worked a route between Atlanta and Miami as an independent subcontractor; the company associated with the route, Forward Air, said the driver was a subcontractor rather than an employee.
The Separate Charges Against Each Defendant
The two defendants are accused of different conduct, a distinction that matters to the case. Stewart faces the sexual-battery charge, and detectives were investigating him in connection with that allegation when they located him in the truck in a Jacksonville parking lot, which is how the children's living conditions came to light.
The report alleges the children witnessed abuse and confronted Stewart, and that he responded by striking them. It further accuses him of physically abusing the children on multiple occasions. These are the allegations set out by investigators, and Stewart is entitled to the presumption of innocence unless and until they are proven in court.
Epps, for her part, is charged with neglect rather than abuse. The report alleges the children told her about the abuse but that she did not believe them and continued to leave them alone with Stewart, and that she called them derogatory names and blamed them for his behaviour.
Her bond was set at just over $100,000 for each of the four counts, with conditions including a GPS monitor and a prohibition on any contact with minors, the alleged victims or her co-defendant.
An Investigation That Began Elsewhere
The case is the product of what authorities described as a multi-jurisdictional investigation, one that started with the inquiry into Stewart and expanded once officers reached the truck. The children have been removed from the situation, though authorities have released few details about their current care, and the ages of the four were redacted from the court records.
Both defendants were being held in the Duval County jail after their arrests. The charge Stewart faces, capital sexual battery, is among the most serious in Florida law, reserved for the sexual abuse of young children, and the child-neglect counts against Epps each carry their own substantial bond.
The next stage will play out in the Florida courts, where prosecutors will have to prove the allegations the arrest report lays out.
For the four children at the centre of the case, the immediate question is one of recovery and care after years in conditions that, by the account of the officers who found them, had shaped even the way they walked.
