Father, girlfriend take pleas in boy’s basement imprisonment

ELDORA, Iowa – A man and woman accused of confining the man’s son in a basement in central Iowa have taken plea deals.

Hardin County District Court records say 31-year-old Alex Shadlow pleaded guilty Monday to kidnapping and two counts of child endangerment. Prosecutors lowered the kidnapping charge in return for Shadlow’s pleas.

His girlfriend, 40-year-old Traci Tyler, pleaded guilty to three counts of child endangerment causing serious injury. She was found guilty in April of misdemeanour false imprisonment.

Sentencings haven’t been scheduled.

Prosecutors say Tyler and Shadlow locked his 8-year-old son in a space beneath the basement stairs of their Ackley home for at least nine hours a day in summer 2017. The boy told authorities he slept on concrete, had no access to a bathroom and food was withheld.