Police found a 12-year-old boy walking in traffic after escaping his abusive parents in the middle of the night, US media reports.
The child told officers his step-mum and dad had forgotten to handcuff him to his bed, and was found covered in bruises on a motorway in Missouri in the middle of the night.
He told Missouri State Highway Patrol he packed a bag and had tried to flee his house. He had swollen eyes and a swollen forehead, and appeared to have been "beaten and tortured", police claim.
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