Pennsylvania Dad Allegedly Used Shock Collars and Needles to Abuse Wife and Kids for Years
Pennsylvania police have filed more than 150 criminal charges against a 44-year-old father accused of verbally and physically abusing his wife and two small children for years - at times even using an electric dog collar to shock them.
An arrest affidavit obtained by PEOPLE alleges that Joseph Myhre began punching, kicking, beating and choking his two children, ages 11 and 13, when they were 4 and 5. He was arrested on Friday.
The arrest report further accuses Myhre, of Collegeville, Pennsylvania, of inserting small needles under his children’s fingernails and toenails to make them bleed.
He also allegedly used electric dog collars to shock his two kids, leaving burn marks on their skin.
Police in Lower Providence, Pennsylvania, began investigating Myhre in March, after his wife drove herself to a local hospital for treatment. Doctors summoned officers to the hospital upon discovering fractures at the base of the back of her skull.
She told officers Myhre had allegedly forced her to the ground, sat on her back and repeatedly punched her in the head. She also claimed that he routinely abused their children.
Myhre, who is being held on $1 million bail, has yet to enter pleas to the charges against him, which include counts for aggravated assault, strangulation, unlawful restraint, conspiracy, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child.
He has not retained an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
Countless’ Alleged Assaults
Under questioning, Myhre allegedly told police he had grabbed his children and hit them with sticks but said he did not mean to hurt them. He also allegedly said the children never cried or indicated the abuse caused them any pain.
But the two children told police their father allegedly hit them “countless” times, sometimes using a stick or piece of PVC piping, according to the affidavit obtained by PEOPLE.
Sometimes the strikes would knock them unconscious. Other times, the children reportedly saw stars.
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.
Myhre’s daughter told police “her father would ask her to do many tasks for him throughout the day, and if she did not do those things to her father’s liking, he would punish her,” the affidavit claims.
His son spoke extensively about his father’s alleged use of a shock collar to discipline him.
“Where the two nodes were on the shock collar, it would leave a mark,” the boy told police. He said his father allegedly “tied it very tight” around his leg, “and I would not be able to feel my foot sometimes.”
It Hurts So Bad’
The boy also alleged to police that his dad once slammed his head into the floor - and that he later needed stitches to close the wound.
The affidavit claims the boy’s parents drove him to an urgent-care center and told him to tell nurses and doctors that he’d fallen and not been attacked.
“Many times he would hit [my] head with a wooden stick,” one of the children told police of their dad, according to the arrest affidavit.
“Another thing he would do is shock me with a dog collar,” the child continued. “He would also bang my head against the wall or floor sometimes. Usually blood. It was so severe one time, I needed stitches.”
The boy’s body bore a number of permanent scars, according to court records.
Myhre’s wife provided police with an audio recording of one incident in which the children were physically reprimanded. “It hurts so bad, Dad,” one child yells in the recording, the affidavit states. “Get off my feet I cannot stand it.
A male voice can be heard replying, “Good.”
Myhre is next due in court in early May for a preliminary hearing.
