A Florida couple was arrested on Friday, August 7, after four siblings were found living in the cab of a semi-truck in Jacksonville. Keisha Epps and her truck-driver fiancé, Tamra Marshon Stewart, were arrested and accused of allegedly physically abusing the children, withholding medical care, and forcing them to live in the cab for seven years.
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Florida Couple Held Four Children Hostage In Semi-Truck Cab For Seven Years
The Florida couple, 51-year-old Keisha Epps and 37-year-old Tamra Marshon Stewart, were arrested in Jacksonville earlier this month. Stewart was reportedly a truck driver with routes between Georgia and Florida, and the duo was arrested after four children were found to be living in his semi-truck cab.
A report from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office noted that the four children had lived in the semi-truck cab since December 2019 and shared the same bed, per Action News Jackson. The JSO report also stated that the children were rarely allowed out of the truck.
“The children were ‘rarely allowed out of the cab of the truck, even if they needed to use the restroom…. fed poorly, did not attend school… did not receive medical care,’” Action News Jackson reports of the JSO’s report.
The Children Were Also Physically Abused
In addition to the four children being held captive in the semi-truck cab, the siblings were also physically abused. After one child witnessed Stewart sexually abuse another child and confronted him, both children were beaten.
“[One child] ‘witnessed some sexual abuse by suspect 1 (Tamra Stewart) and confronted him,’ [and Stewart] ‘beat them by punching their heads,’” the police report adds.
A medical exam conducted by the Clay County Child Protection Team in May 2026, after the children were rescued, found that one child had a sexually transmitted disease. She was also permanently scarred after being burned by hot noodles and denied medical care. The child was burned so severely that there was reportedly “a lot of blood,” per The Palm Beach Post.
Child Neglect Charges Filed And Sex Abuse Charges Expected
Stewart was not charged with sex abuse crimes, according to PEOPLE. However, an affidavit reportedly states the DA’s intention to charge him with capital sexual battery. Epps and Stewart were both charged with child neglect. Both received one charge for each child.
It’s not yet clear how the four children were rescued, but a medical exam by the Child Protection Team in Clay County diagnosed one child with an STI, which her sibling said happened in May. Nevertheless, the couple left the STI untreated.
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