A 13-year-old boy reported missing four years ago was found alive and well hidden behind a false wall in a linen cupboard after a police search of a home near Atlanta.
The boy's father and stepmother, Gregory Jean, 37, and Samantha Davis, 42, of Jonesboro, appeared in a Clayton County court near Atlanta on charges of obstruction, false imprisonment and child cruelty.
The couple were arrested Saturday and both were denied bond, reported AFP.
The strange case apparently started when the boy went to visit his father in 2010.
Police told Atlanta's Channel 2 the mother then reported him missing to child welfare authorities, but not to police, possibly because she was an immigrant and unfamiliar with the legal system. Last week she received a telephone call from him.
Clayton County police were called to the Jonesboro house late Friday, but the occupants denied any knowledge of the child. Just to be sure, police searched the house. They found nothing, local media said.
But hours later police received another call and this time the boy was able to tell his mother where he was being held.
According to the Channel 2, the teen had found a cellphone and downloaded an app through which he contacted his mother, who was in Florida.
He was being hidden behind a panel in a linen closet in the garage, the news station reported.
"It shocked all of us, honestly," one neighbor said. "They were really nice people, they were open. They were like, 'Hey, come over any time you want.'"
Neighbors said the boy was seen at times working in the yard, and that they heard that he was home-schooled, reports said.
Jean and Davis were scheduled to appear in court again on Dec. 9.
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