Steve Tasker
Footballguy
Apologies in advance for the long post. Some backstory:
My aunt (my dad's oldest sister - we'll call her Aunt A), uncle, and cousin live in a rural town about 60-75 minutes away from where my parents live. I do not see them very often, usually only on major holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. Aunt and uncle are in their mid/late 50s, and my cousin is 28. My aunt and cousin are both mentally handicapped. I can't really classify it....they are able to hold down menial jobs and can carry on interpersonal relationships but would struggle to fully manage their day-to-day lives, personal finances, personal hygiene, etc without help. My uncle is a retired ex-corrections officer/parole officer from a local prison. While it may not have much bearing on this, he weighs probably 450 lbs. They also have a son who worked his ### off to get out of there as soon as possible and is now a successful engineer living across the state. My understanding is that he hasn't seen his parents or sister in at least like 3 years now. I know that he hates his father, but have never heard any backstory on why.
They have always struggled with money. My aunt has never been able to work much, usually janitorial work at a local theme park, and my uncle was always notoriously stingy with his cash and generally very controlling of my aunt's activity. I haven't been to their house in probably 20 years now.
My father's other sister - we'll call her Aunt B - is a nurse and visits them fairly regularly to check up on them and make sure everything is okay. This past Saturday, she went out to lunch with Aunt A, my cousin, and my cousin's friend. Over the course of lunch, the friend revealed to Aunt B that my uncle has been hitting the two of them and verbally abusing them regularly. Aunt A and cousin confirmed this fact, saying that he hits them, shoves them into the walls, and verbally abuses them. Friend continued to say that the police have been called on multiple occasions, but that uncle seems to know all of the police officers in their town and nothing has ever happened.
It should be stated that cousin had an incident about 7 years ago where she claimed she was raped and a large investigation commenced on the matter. The man she accused was fully acquitted, and it was rumored after the fact that she had been coerced to claim rape as some kind of sick prank from some local kids whom she thought were her friends but were just ####### with her. Not sure if it matters but police may find her to be a less-than-credible witness based on this.
So after all of this, we are pretty worked up. My father is "making some phone calls" but I have no idea what that means. My grandparents both passed within the past 3 years so he has kinda taken the role of "family patriarch" so to speak. Normally I'd stay out of this, but it absolutely sickens me to think that my uncle could be abusing them. I don't want to rush to conclusions and have never had any indication that this is happening, but frankly it wouldn't really surprise me. Who should we be calling? Who can we turn to? Local crisis services type stuff? I'm not much of a tough guy but part of me wants to show up at his house and beat the #### out of him, but I know that's a bad idea. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.
My aunt (my dad's oldest sister - we'll call her Aunt A), uncle, and cousin live in a rural town about 60-75 minutes away from where my parents live. I do not see them very often, usually only on major holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. Aunt and uncle are in their mid/late 50s, and my cousin is 28. My aunt and cousin are both mentally handicapped. I can't really classify it....they are able to hold down menial jobs and can carry on interpersonal relationships but would struggle to fully manage their day-to-day lives, personal finances, personal hygiene, etc without help. My uncle is a retired ex-corrections officer/parole officer from a local prison. While it may not have much bearing on this, he weighs probably 450 lbs. They also have a son who worked his ### off to get out of there as soon as possible and is now a successful engineer living across the state. My understanding is that he hasn't seen his parents or sister in at least like 3 years now. I know that he hates his father, but have never heard any backstory on why.
They have always struggled with money. My aunt has never been able to work much, usually janitorial work at a local theme park, and my uncle was always notoriously stingy with his cash and generally very controlling of my aunt's activity. I haven't been to their house in probably 20 years now.
My father's other sister - we'll call her Aunt B - is a nurse and visits them fairly regularly to check up on them and make sure everything is okay. This past Saturday, she went out to lunch with Aunt A, my cousin, and my cousin's friend. Over the course of lunch, the friend revealed to Aunt B that my uncle has been hitting the two of them and verbally abusing them regularly. Aunt A and cousin confirmed this fact, saying that he hits them, shoves them into the walls, and verbally abuses them. Friend continued to say that the police have been called on multiple occasions, but that uncle seems to know all of the police officers in their town and nothing has ever happened.
It should be stated that cousin had an incident about 7 years ago where she claimed she was raped and a large investigation commenced on the matter. The man she accused was fully acquitted, and it was rumored after the fact that she had been coerced to claim rape as some kind of sick prank from some local kids whom she thought were her friends but were just ####### with her. Not sure if it matters but police may find her to be a less-than-credible witness based on this.
So after all of this, we are pretty worked up. My father is "making some phone calls" but I have no idea what that means. My grandparents both passed within the past 3 years so he has kinda taken the role of "family patriarch" so to speak. Normally I'd stay out of this, but it absolutely sickens me to think that my uncle could be abusing them. I don't want to rush to conclusions and have never had any indication that this is happening, but frankly it wouldn't really surprise me. Who should we be calling? Who can we turn to? Local crisis services type stuff? I'm not much of a tough guy but part of me wants to show up at his house and beat the #### out of him, but I know that's a bad idea. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.
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