Utah mom's bleak four-word admission after starving and locking her son in bathroom for a year

A disturbed Utah mom who abandoned her 12-year-old son, starving him to the same weight as a toddler after she locked him in a faeces-covered bathroom for over a year, uttered a chilling admission after she finally accepted her fate.

Brandy K. Jaynes pleaded guilty to three second-degree child abuse charges after her estranged husband stumbled upon the emaciated boy at their home in Toquerville before rushing him to a local hospital.

The victim was identified as having special educational needs. The prosecution highlighted that the bathroom door lock was "set up for confinement specifically," complemented by an alarm system.

A chilling detail emerged with the revelation that Jaynes had rigged a baby monitor to stream live video of her trapped son to her laptop and smartphone. She then wrote some devastating final words from behind bars after her fate was sealed: "I am very sorry."

In the letter, Jaynes said: "I never meant for this to happen. [My son] has had problems from the day he was born, problems that got worse and worse, and I screwed up by not getting help. I hurt him by not getting help. And for this I am very sorry."

In the last four months of the young boy's horrific ordeal, Jaynes spiraled into a dangerous heroin and methamphetamine addiction. She asserts that it was only after she sobered up in jail that the full weight of her actions hit her. "Yes, I am guilty and I am accountable for my actions," she penned. "I should have gotten help and by not doing so I hurt someone that I love with all my heart."

Prosecutors shared horrifying stills from the video feed, capturing the child's intense anguish and hopeless state – his sleep spot being the solitary space not engulfed in excrement. The boy exhibited additional symptoms of severe neglect, including liver damage indicative of malnutrition, several vitamin deficiencies, skin peeling, and pressure ulcers due to lying in the same spot for prolonged durations.

Heart-wrenching details from a victim impact statement revealed that for months before his liberation, the boy survived on an occasional meal — some hot dogs — just every other day. "I felt frozen when I was drenched with ice cold water in the winter," read part of his harrowing testimony, which also pointed to severe psychological torment.

At the time he was rescued, the boy's physical condition was shocking – his weight was a mere 33 pounds, more akin to that of a toddler rather than someone his age, and his stature "well below" the average for a child of 12, according to the attending physician.

While the victim's statement held onto a glimmer of hope for a reunion with his mother, in August 2017 Jaynes, then 36, was ultimately handed down three successive prison sentences totally up to 45 years. Following an investigation, the boy's father, Russell Orin Jaynes, faced charges of third-degree felony reckless child abuse for his delay in intervention. He was jailed for at least a year in April 2018.

The family's other two children conveyed to investigators that their brother had been contained in the bathroom for at least a year, with the father claiming ignorance of the situation, attributing it to frequent work trips and being misled by his wife while at home.

The culmination of the boy's prolonged suffering highlighted a steep decline in his mother's life, with defence lawyer Edward Flint citing spousal abuse as the catalyst for her psychological collapse. Jaynes removed her son from school in 2012 with intentions of homeschooling, but this initiative swiftly failed.

The boy has since managed to regain weight to a healthy level, but the possibility of him ever walking normally again remains uncertain. Deputy County Attorney Angie Reddish-Day expressed astonishment at the boy's resilience, stating, "It's extraordinary this victim survived this."