Pastor And Wife Arrested After Locking Kids In Bathroom For Multiple Days, Whipping Them With A Wooden Board

A pastor and his wife were taken into custody for supposedly abusing at least eight children, ages 2 to 17.

Authorities in Blackwell, Oklahoma, say that Keith and Candy Holt beat the children that they had custody of with a board and locked them in a bathroom for multiple days without water.

At the beginning of this month, authorities were contacted by the state Department of Human Services. This was because the children had been left by themselves. Police had also gotten calls from multiple other people who were worried about what was going inside of the residence.

When authorities went by the home on January 14, the Holts wouldn’t allow them to go inside. This is after child welfare workers received information about a recording and photos that showed that the two could have been abusing the children.

Additionally, when DHS workers went to check on the children the following day, no one answered the door. However, on Tuesday, police were let into the home. That’s when they discovered evidence to arrest the pair for suspicion of child abuse. Some of the evidence included bruises on one of the girl’s arms and legs and a wooden board.

Detectives think that the couple beat the children with a wooden board, possibly striking them 40 times, each occurrence. They are also said to have punished the children by locking them in the bathroom for multiple days without food or water.

One beating occurred after “someone said that she said they were bad parents,” one of the girl’s reported.

In another occurrence, the pastor beat one the girls 40 times because his wife couldn’t find her makeup. He had believed that the girl had stolen it, the children said.

The children are now in protective custody.

Although Keith Holt told authorities that he is the lead pastor of House of Prayer Church, the church denied those claims on a Facebook post.