Girl chained in basement by family friend drank puddle to survive, WI cops say

A family friend is accused of sexually abusing, assaulting and threatening three young girls for years in Wisconsin, investigators say.

David Boyd, 64, of Milwaukee, is facing charges including repeated sexual assault of a child, physical abuse of a child, trafficking of a child and false imprisonment, court records filed April 26 in Milwaukee County show.

No attorney information was available for Boyd.

Police began investigating Boyd when the foster parent of one of the girls, the youngest of the three victims, contacted authorities in January, records said. The girl confided to her foster parent that she had been abused numerous times by Boyd — but investigators unearthed the full extent of her horrific treatment in a series of interviews over weeks, court documents said.

The girl and her older sister began living with a friend of their mother’s, whom they called GG, when they were young, according to police. Boyd was GG’s boyfriend, and the girl recalled meeting him for the first time in 2018, when she was 6 years old, and the abuse started soon after.

Her older sister and a relative who came to visit GG periodically were also repeatedly sexually assaulted by him, the girls told police. Boyd started abusing the relative first, until she “said she had enough,” at which point he began targeting the girl’s older sister, documents read. But when the big sister left, Boyd “moved onto” the youngest.

Boyd assaulted her “too many times to count,” she said, adding that he would wait until GG was out of the home to do so, documents said. Sometimes he would follow her into the shower and then into her bedroom, the documents said.

“(She) estimated she was 8 or 9 years old during these incidents, as she recalled the type of Barbie pajama set she owned at the time that she got for her birthday,” records said.

There were times Boyd would hold the girl at knifepoint, cutting her on different parts of her body, she told investigators.

Around the time she was 11, he trafficked her on at least two occasions, including one instance with four men, some of whom she recognized, the complaint said.

Sometimes when GG was out of town and the girl was alone with Boyd, he would chain her arms to a pole in the basement of his house, she told investigators, according to the complaint. She was left only a piece of bread, and the only source of water she had was a standing puddle where the concrete floor bowed.

Pictures shared by investigators show a dingy basement lit by a single bulb, with hooked metal chains dangling from wooden beams overhead.

Police searched Boyd’s home on April 16.

The girl drew a rough sketch of the home that aligned with what investigators found.

“Officers also noted there were multiple loose knives and blades throughout the house,” documents said.

Boyd denied that either of the girls had ever been in his basement, but when investigators showed him the picture the girl drew and asked how she could recall the room in detail, he “immediately jumped up (and) stated he needed to use the bathroom,” authorities said.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 7, records show.

This story was originally published April 29, 2025 at 3:28 PM with the headline "Girl chained in basement by family friend drank puddle to survive, WI cops say."