(UnitedVoice.com) – Teen pregnancy rates have been on the decline in the US for years. Still, states see thousands of teenagers get pregnant each year. In Florida, a man is now facing charges for allegedly convincing his teen daughter to try to kill herself.
On April 7, Gared Wayne Canales, 33, reportedly began berating his 13-year-old daughter. The child had contacted her dad while she was with her friends in her room and put him on speakerphone so they could hear him. During the conversation, her father allegedly called her a number of disparaging, misogynistic names. He’s also accused of telling her to go “[expletive] yourself.”
The teen girl reportedly tried to tell her dad how he was making her feel, when he cut her off and told her that she wasn’t “worth it” and she should go kill herself because he chose his girlfriend over her. His remarks came after she’d texted him and admitted she was thinking about taking her own life. On the telephone, he allegedly told her, “You kill yourself, just don’t say it.” At some point, the abuse was so bad she is said to have grabbed a baseball bat and destroyed a photo of herself and her father.
A few days after the call between Canales and his daughter, she cut her wrist with glass and took more than a dozen Benadryl pills.
Gared Wayne Canales was arrested and accused of telling his 13-year-old daughter that she was a "whore" and to "go kill yourself," an arrest affidavit alleges.
His daughter swallowed 14 Benadryl pills in a failed suicide attempt, according to police.https://t.co/Hhbuikqcd1
— Jury File (@JuryFile) June 23, 2023
The teen was rushed to Halifax Hospital in Daytona Beach. Doctors were able to pump her stomach and save her life. On April 14, a judge issued an arrest warrant for Canales on charges of felony child abuse and a misdemeanor for allegedly violating probation. Law enforcement found him in Massachusetts, and he was extradited to Florida in mid-June.
Canales is being held without bond. A judge also issued a restraining order against him on June 19, prohibiting him from having any contact with his daughter.
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