Man starved his children, made them use a bucket for a toilet, MDSO says

Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested a man accused of starving his children, locking them in their rooms and making them use a bucket as their toilet, according to an arrest report.

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Wendy Louis, 40, was arrested Tuesday after deputies conducted a welfare check on his home on Northeast 175th Street and found his children extremely thin and with unkempt, matted hair, the sheriff’s office said. The children told deputies Louis does not allow them to bathe, according to his arrest report.

The children, whose age and sex were not written in the report, said their father goes days without feeding them because, “the government is putting stuff in their food,” deputies wrote in the affidavit.

Though they aren’t allowed to take showers, that is where they get their drinking water, according to the report. The children also said they aren’t allowed to use the bathroom for a toilet, and use a bucket instead, the report states.

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The children also told deputies that Louis withdrew them from school in August 2025, and he does not homeschool them, according to the report.

Louis refused to be interviewed by deputies, who booked him into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on two felony counts of child neglect. A judge had not set bond as of Wednesday afternoon, according to jail records. Louis also has a pending misdemeanor battery case. He is accused of hitting a man without provocation in Miami Gardens in April, according to court records.

He is being represented by a Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office attorney, who did not immediately respond to the Miami Herald’s request for comment. The report did not state who took custody of the children.

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