Clover boy, 3, tied, beaten and injured, police say. Mom wanted, boyfriend charged

Police in Clover are looking for the mother of a 3-year-old boy who was allegedly beaten and tied up by her boyfriend, police said.

The child had to be hospitalized for injuries from the abuse that police say happened in North Carolina and at a home on Valley Avenue in Clover, said Capt. Logan McGarity of the Clover Police Department.

Clover police have an arrest warrant against Mary Michele Nestle, 21, the child’s mother, who has lived in both Clover and Gaston County, N.C., McGarity said.

Clover police on Thursday charged Nestle’s boyfriend Joshua Alan Dyar, 24, with felony child abuse, according to police and jail records.

Police in South Carolina and North Carolina have been investigating since June, according to a Clover police report.

Nestle told police she had seen Dyar strike her son and spank him with a belt with metal rings on it, the report states.

When the child received medical treatment for injuries, he had marks on his buttocks, lips, ears and hair loss, police said. The child also had injuries to his genitals, police said.

Dyar is accused of tying the child’s hands behind his back with an Ace bandage and making him sit in a corner as punishment, police said.

Dyar told police he had given the child a “whooping” but that was the only physical action against the child, the report states.

Police said Nestle failed to get her son proper medical care and failed to remove him from an unsafe environment.

Dyar also faces North Carolina charges for alleged abuse of the child. Dyar was released in August on bond from the Gaston County jail after he was charged in July with child abuse inflicting serious injury, according to North Carolina police and court records.

Dyar is in the York County jail under a $4,000 bond, records show.

This story was originally published September 21, 2018 at 2:25 PM.