Thanks to a waitress and a secret note, a Florida man was charged Monday with child abuse and neglect, according to the New York Post.
On January 1, 2021, Flaviane Carvakho was working at the Mrs Potato restaurant in the city of Orlando when Timothy Lee Wilson, 36, came to eat with his family.
While serving the family, Flavian notices that no one is ordering food for the little boy. A few moments later, she notices that the child has several scratches and several bruises on his face and on his arms.
Worried, the heroine writes “Do you need help?” on a note of paper and shows it to the 11-year-old boy, standing behind his parents.
The child nods. Not wasting another second, Flaviane dials 911.
“I’m really worried and I don’t know what to do. The boy has scratches and he’s not eating,” the waitress asks the person at the call center.
Over time, investigators discovered that the child had been tortured and abused by his stepfather, Timothy Lee Wilson. He was charged on Monday with child abuse and neglect.
Timothy Lee Wilson | Capture New York Post
Aware of the abuse that her spouse was inflicting on her child, the mother, Kristin Swann, was arrested for neglect.
“We would probably have spoken of homicide if Flaviane had not intervened,” said Orlando Rolón, the chief of police in Orlando, last year.
The 11-year-old boy and his little sister, 4, were removed from their mother’s care. The little girl was not abused.
“Justice has been served!” wrote Flaviane on a page created to collect donations online. She managed to raise almost $50,000.