{"id":7838,"date":"2025-09-01T10:16:50","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T10:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/?p=7838"},"modified":"2025-09-01T10:16:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T10:16:50","slug":"boy-with-down-syndrome-found-starving-and-locked-in-attic-is-reunited-with-officers-who-rescued-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/?p=7838","title":{"rendered":"Boy with Down syndrome found starving and locked in attic is reunited with officers who rescued him"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"103\" data-end=\"374\">In 2010, 6-year-old Giovanni \u201cGovi\u201d Eastwood, a boy with Down syndrome, was found starved and neglected in the attic of his Kansas home. He weighed just 17 pounds\u2014about the size of a 3-year-old\u2014unable to walk, barely able to speak, and suffering from severe malnutrition.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"376\" data-end=\"720\">Police discovered Govi after arresting his mother, Rachel Perez, on outstanding warrants. While her other children were safely removed, Perez lied about Govi\u2019s whereabouts. Officers, suspecting something was wrong, returned and found him hidden in the attic\u2014emaciated, filthy, and near death. Doctors said he wouldn\u2019t have survived much longer.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"722\" data-end=\"788\">Perez was sentenced to eight years in prison for attempted murder.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"790\" data-end=\"997\">Govi and his sisters were adopted by their great aunt and uncle, Stacy and Joe Eastwood. Though traumatized, Govi slowly healed in their care. Once fearful and sleeping on the floor, he began to trust again.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"999\" data-end=\"1184\">In 2016, the officers who saved him reunited with Govi\u2014now thriving at age 12. He was named an honorary deputy and proudly took home a plaque, which he reportedly slept with that night.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1186\" data-end=\"1273\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">\u201cThe kid is magical,\u201d said Joe Eastwood. \u201cHe brings out the best in everyone he meets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1186\" data-end=\"1273\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Boy rescued from attic now an honorary deputy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/z6WAvIXYYGc?feature=oembed\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2010, 6-year-old Giovanni \u201cGovi\u201d Eastwood, a boy with Down syndrome, was found starved and neglected in the attic of his Kansas home. He weighed just 17 pounds\u2014about the size of a 3-year-old\u2014unable to walk, barely able to speak, and suffering from severe malnutrition. Police discovered Govi after arresting his mother, Rachel Perez, on outstanding&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/albotips.com\/?p=7838\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Boy with Down syndrome found starving and locked in attic is reunited with officers who rescued him&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7839,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7840,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7838\/revisions\/7840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}