Many questions remain after boy is found chained up at Memphis home

by Katie Rufener

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Department of Child Services is trying to figure out who six children belong to after they were taken from a home where a boy was found in restraints.

All the children were removed from a house in the 5600 block of Gaywinds Avenue Thursday. Neighbors tell WREG that’s where a young boy was found chained up.

DCS said, according to their records, none of the children taken from the house are foster kids.

WREG tried talking to a man who claimed to be the own the house. He wouldn’t share his name, but the home’s owners are listed as Melvin and Kenya Bloomingburg. They have lived there since 2006. The man refused to talk to a WREG reporter about the children or the accusations.

DCS said the house was a foster home for the last two years, but the family stopped fostering in February. They said there were never any problems during that time.

However Thursday night, the house was swarming with police after hearing a child was being restrained in a shed behind it.

A neighbor, Valerie Golden, said, “My son was over here playing with the kids a while ago, and they said the little boy was chained to the back fence back there.”

Six children were taken from the home. At this time, DCS is not saying how they are related to the adults in the house.

Calvin Hudson talked to WREG Thursday and claimed to be the children’s uncle.

“I never saw them chained or stuff,” he said.

Some neighbors said they were always suspicious of the family.

“These kids in the neighborhood have been telling us what’s going on,” Golden said.

However, others said if it is true, the family put on a good front. “

There was maybe two she adopted and then I think she has maybe three of her own,” Barbara Johnson-McKinney said of the kids on the house. “But good parents! Good parents!”

No arrests have been made at this point, but the Memphis Police Department said the investigation is ongoing.