An investigation into a child abuse case at a home in St. Charles led police to a large methamphetamine lab set up in the home’s basement near the children’s play area, with chemicals found in boxes with the children’s toys and books, police said.
Six children under the age of seven were living in the home in the 1700 block of Sunset Drive, according to court documents.
Lucinda Marie Hyde, 33, and her boyfriend, Sean Anthony Crews, 25, were each charged with attempt to manufacture drugs and endangering the welfare of a child. Crews’ half-brother, Allen Joseph Emery, 40, and Eric Joseph Bill, 28, who also live in the house, face the same charges.
Crews faces an additional charge of child abuse for an incident in December, when he allegedly threw his 6-year-old son over a car seat in the house’s family room and the boy landed on his shoulder, fracturing his clavicle. Crews initially denied throwing the boy, but when police spoke to the girlfriend about the child abuse claim, she told them about the meth lab. The St. Charles County Regional Drug Task Force served a search warrant at the home on Monday, and Crews confessed to cooking meth and abusing the boy.
The children – a 7-year-old boy, a 7-year-old girl, a 6-year-old boy, two 5-year-old girls, and an 8-month-old girl were all at the house while the meth was being cooked in the basement. The children were taken into custody by state family services.
Two “one pot” labs were found in the basement and Emery was about to prepare another large cook when police arrived, court documents say. A “very large” dumpsite was found in the carport, police wrote.
According to court documents, Emery told police that in exchange for buying pills and keeping the children “out of Sean’s hair” while Crews cooked meth, Cooks would play his cell phone bill, buy him groceries and gas, and give him finished meth to snort. Bill also admitted he would also serve as a lookout for Crews and would watch the kids so they wouldn’t go downstairs while Crews made meth. In exchange, he got free rent and finished meth, police said.
Crews told police that he needed extra money and so he thought “being a meth cook was his best course of action.”
The house has been condemned, and all four suspects were being held in the St. Charles County Jail, each on a $75,000 cash-only bail.
