Fund Aims To Help Abused Teen, Sisters

Those who wish to help a Dallas teen who had been found last week in Los Angeles after years of alleged abuse from his parents now have a way to do so.

The Paulding County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday announced on its Facebook page that a fund had been set up at Westside Bank, which operates an office in Hiram, to help 18-year-old Mitch Comer and his two sisters, Catrina and Lya. The account was set up by Paulding County District Attorney's Victim-Witness Advocates.

Mitch Comer was found by authorities Sept. 11 in a Greyhound bus station in Los Angeles. The 18-year-old, whom authorities said appeared to only be 12 or 13, weighed only 87 pounds and was just over 5 feet tall.

Comer told authorities that his stepfather, 48-year-old Paul Matthew Comer, had given him $200 and a list of homeless shelters, then put him on a bus in Jackson, Miss.

But the young Comer said his abuse spanned years and included confinement to his room and meals consisting of only small quantities of food. The teen also said he had been taken out of school in the eighth grade and had been forced to endure long hours in a disciplinary position—the top of his head against a wall, his fingers interlaced behind his head and his feet raised off the ground.

“We have corroborated some of the stories Mitch has told us,” Cpl. Ashley Henson with the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Friday night. “We have every reason to believe that what Mitch told us was accurate.”

Paul Comer and 39-year-old Sheila Marie Comer, Mitch Comer’s mother, each face six charges of cruelty to children and one charge of false imprisonment, according to PCSO records retrieved early Monday.

The Paulding County Sheriff’s Office continues to work in conjunction with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation on this case. Anyone with information on this case or is familiar with the Comer family is urged to contact the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office Crimes Against Children Division at 770-445-6105.

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