James, Ethan, and Jennifer Crumbley. (Photo: Oakland County Sheriff's Office)
Jennifer and James Crumbley's parenting style raised alarms long before they allegedly enabled their 15-year-old son to carry out last week's shooting at Oxford High Shool, the Free Press reports.
In 2014 and 2015, before Ethan Crumbley was 10, they often left him home alone in their Lake Orion townhouse while they hit the downtown bars about a half-mile away. A neighbor alerted Child Protective Services.
“When they were gone, he would come knock on our door,” (neighbor Kayla) LeMieux said of the boy. “They didn’t leave him with a phone.”
The boy would ask LeMieux to call his parents, she said.
LeMieux, who also worked as a restaurant server with Jennifer in 2012, considered her a friend and said they would often hang out at downtown spots together. But the relationship soured partly because she was concerned the boy was left home alone, she said.
“It was really when I finally started to say more, because I was just like, even after calling CPS, they were still doing it and even me saying something to them, they were still like ‘Oh he is fine,’ ” LeMieux said.
LeMieux said she doesn't know what came of the CPS complaint. The state tells the paper it can't divulge because the agency's communications are private.
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