IDABEL — A Broken Bow couple from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean whose adult son was found in their house, chained up like a dog, are charged in McCurtain County District Court with kidnapping and abuse by caretaker.
Bond for the father, Mari Joab, 49, and the mother, Jivel Lokiar, 53, was set at $75,000 each. The initial court appearance for both is scheduled for Sept. 8. The charges were filed July 27.
The case resulted from an incident that occurred on June 7, court records indicate.
Broken Bow Police Officers Quentin Lee and Erick Lewis were dispatched to a house that day to serve an arrest warrant on Lushios Joab, 24. The officers reported that when they told Lokiar they were there to arrest her son and asked where he was, she pointed to a bedroom.
When the officers entered the room “we found Lushios had a chain around his ankle” with a padlock on it; the chain was attached to a steel cable “used to tether dogs outside in a yard,” the officers said. The cable was inserted through a hole in the wall “and around a wooden stud,” and the steel cable “was locked again so it could not be removed from the wall.”
The officers asked for the key to the lock “but Jivel could not understand what we were asking for.”
About this time Nitha Joab, daughter of Mari and Jivel, arrived at the house; she lives downstairs and speaks English. After the officers explained that they needed the key to the lock, Nitha said her father had the key with him and he was at work.
So, the police officers called the Broken Bow Fire Department and asked them to bring bolt cutters. When the firefighters arrived they cut the lock off the chain around Lushios’ ankle “and he was taken into custody without further incident,” the officers wrote.
While waiting for the fire department to arrive, Nitha Joab “explained to us that her father locked up Lushios to keep him from getting out of the house,” the police officers related. The Broken Bow Police Department “has had multiple calls of service that involve Lushios,” the officers wrote.
Several days later, on June 19, Officer Lee said he found Mari Joab at home. With Nitha Joab translating for him, Lee said he informed Mari of his Miranda rights to remain silent and have an attorney present, “and he agreed to speak with me.”
Mari repeated what Nitha had said previously: that he confined Lushios with a locked chain “to keep him from leaving the home.” Lee said that when he asked Mari about his wife not having the key to the lock in the event of a fire, “I did not get much of a response.”
Lee said that when he asked to see Lushios, he found him in a bedroom, again with a locked chain around his foot. “I tried to wake Lushios up but was unable.” Mari retrieved the key and unlocked the chain.
The officer said that when he told the father that he could not restrain his son with a chain, “Mari asked me what he should do, and I told him to put a double-key deadbolt lock on the door.” Lee said that as he was leaving the house, the daughter Nitha “made a statement to me that they have been giving Lushios sleeping pills to keep him asleep.”
Lushios Joab, a high-school dropout, was in the custody of his parents because a five-year restraining order was issued against him on June 14.
A neighbor accused him of vandalizing her two vehicles and stalking her; she filed for a protective order in May 2022. Earlier this year a McCurtain County district judge ordered Lushios Joab released “to the care of his family and to have a curfew of 6 p.m. ‘til 6 a.m. daily unless traveling to/from work.” Within a few days Lushios was named in a misdemeanor charge of violating the protective order.