Florida couple allegedly held four children in tractor-trailer cab for nearly seven years
Florida couple allegedly held four children in tractor-trailer cab for nearly seven years
A Florida couple is being charged with child neglect after allegedly keeping four children confined in the cab of a tractor-trailer for almost seven years without “time to take showers, use the restroom” or “exercise outside,” arrest records show.
The children “have not been allowed to attend school for approximately five years,” they told interviewers at a child advocacy center, according to an arrest report.
Keisha Epps, 51, and her fiancé, Tamra Marshon Stewart, 37, have been living in the cab with the children while Epps works as a truck driver, driving a route between Miami and Atlanta, according to court documents.
Since December 2019, the children were kept inside the vehicle “for the majority of their days.”
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A Florida couple faces four child neglect charges after investigators said four children spent nearly seven years largely confined inside a tractor-trailer cab.
A detective on the case reported the children were “walking with an unnatural gait from being confined to the cab.”
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They were “fed poorly,” and they never received medical or dental care—even for emergencies, the report shows.
During the interview, one of the children recalled a time she “burned herself badly with cooked noodles.”
“There was a lot of blood,” she said.
Neither Stewart nor Epps took her to get medical treatment, the child told investigators. The child has a “permanent scar” from the burn, court records show.
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Court records say all four children shared a bunk so small they had to sleep curled up side by side inside the tractor-trailer cab.
Stewart “would watch” the children when Epps was sleeping, showering and driving the truck, the children said. And when the children witnessed sexual abuse and confronted Stewart, he “beat them by punching them in their heads,” reports show. The identity of the alleged victim of sexual abuse wasn’t clear.
The children said they told Epps about the sexual abuse and saw her witness the sexual abuse. She called one “derogatory names and continued to leave them alone with” Stewart, reports show.
One of the children was found to have an untreated sexually transmitted infection.
All four children shared a bunk in the cab so small that they had to lie “curled up side by side because they could not fit,” reports show.
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Keisha Epps and Tamra Marshon Stewart were arrested Aug. 6 and remain jailed as they await trial on child neglect charges.
Both Epps and Stewart were arrested on Aug. 6, 2026, according to a heavily redacted report filed with the court by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Epps and Stewart both were charged with four counts of child neglect—one count for each child. Each count of a third-degree felony is punishable by up to five years in prison, up to five years’ probation and a fine of up to $5,000. Investigators said their actions demonstrated a “committed, willful failure or omission to provide a child with the care, supervision, and services necessary to maintain the child’s physical and mental health, including but not limited to, food, nutrition, clothing, shelter, supervision, medicine and medical services that a prudent person would consider essential to the wellbeing of the child.”
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According to court documents, “capital sexual battery charges” against Stewart will be filed in the “9th Judicial District by the Statewide Prosecutor,” a report shows. Under Florida law, anyone convicted of sexual battery of a child younger than 12 years old can face the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
All information about the children was redacted from reports, including their sexes, ages and relationships to each other and to Epps and Stewart. Epps and Stewart are being held in the Duval County Jail awaiting trial. Bond was set at $400,012 for Epps. Stewart was being held without bond.
Original article source: Florida couple allegedly held four children in tractor-trailer cab for nearly seven years
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