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NFL player in custody after 14-year-old son went missing

Bryson Muir has been found safe and well in Indiana, police said

Michelle Del Rey
Wednesday 03 July 2024 17:34 BST
Related video: Indiana police seek public’s help finding missing teen

A former Indianapolis Colts player has been arrested after police say his son had been abused.

The Indiana State Police SWAT team executed a search warrant at the home of Daniel and Kristen Muir on Wednesday morning. The three family members, including the son, were found at the couple’s Logansport home.

Last month Bryson Muir’s grandmother, Cheryl Wright, notified police that her 14-year-old grandson was being physically abused by his parents and had gone missing. This prompted officials to issue a Silver Alert for the child on June 28.

Upon locating the child, he appeared to be safe and well, police said.

The parents were taken into custody without incident and the child was released to the Cass County Department of Child Services. Authorities charged 40-year-old Daniel Muir with one count of obstruction of justice and one count of domestic battery.

Kristen Muir, 38, was charged with one count of obstruction of justice.

Bryson Muir was found safe and well after his grandmother reported him missing following allegations of abuse
Bryson Muir was found safe and well after his grandmother reported him missing following allegations of abuse (Indiana State Police)

Police said the parents agreed to bring their son into the station on June 28 but backed out of the plan and decided not to cooperate with officials, Fox 59 reported. That’s when authorities issued the alert for the child.

To help with the search, police provided the public with two photos of the boy, one of which showed him with a black eye. The boy’s grandmother said that she believed the child had been abused by his parents.

Bryson was last seen on June 26 outside the woman’s home near Cleveland, Ohio. He got into his mother’s white 2015 Chevrolet Suburban, which was pulled over by the police without the child inside.

“The officers believe that he had probably been switched into another car,” the woman told the news outlet.

After leaving football, Muir became a pastor at Straitway Truth Ministries, a Tennessee religious group that has been compared to a “cult”. According to Fox 59, the organization owns the couple’s home and car.

The grandmother said she believes her grandson has been brainwashed into living on the organization’s compound.

“Bryson is so conditioned or brainwashed to their way of living that he wanted to go back,” she said. “As I tried to get my daughter to leave, he ran out of the house and left with them.

“His face was battered. When I got him, he had a black eye and busted lip,” she said. “His whole face was swollen. I can only imagine how many times he had been hit in the face for it to be like that.”

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