By Pat Culverhouse

A Shongaloo woman is in custody facing two charges stemming from an incident involving a juvenile who was found walking along U.S. Hwy. 371 in Sarepta.

Webster Parish Sheriff Jason Parker said 50-year-old Melaina Baugh has been booked into Bayou Dorcheat Correctional Center for cruelty to a juvenile and failure to report a missing child. Baugh is being held on bonds totaling $25,000.

Parker said Deputy Hannah Baker was dispatched to the Springhill police department where the juvenile was being held after he was picked up Sunday.

“The juvenile told our deputy that his aunt, Melaina Baugh, has hit him multiple times with a wooden stick wrapped with duct tape, and a wooden back scratcher,” the sheriff said. “He reportedly had fingernail marks on his arm from apparently being grabbed repeatedly and aggressively.”

Parker said the youth also had a cut on his head and one under his eye, allegedly caused by strikes from the stick, and fingernail marks behind one ear.

WPSO investigators reportedly learned the juvenile had left the residence on LA Hwy. 615 Saturday night, but Baugh waited 14 hours before calling the Sheriff’s Office to report him missing. Investigators reportedly have interviewed witnesses to the alleged incidents.

This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.