For two years, Mitch Comer’s mother and stepfather, Sheila Comer and Paul Comer, kept him locked inside a bedroom in his family’s rental home in Georgia. He was shut off from the outside world and even his two younger sisters until September 2012.
By then, Comer, who was 18 at the time, was loaded on a bus and sent to Los Angeles with some cash and pamphlets from a homeless shelter. He was spotted by a former security guard, st the Los Angeles bus station, who called police. When he was returned to Georgia, Comer was severely malnourished with translucent skin — evidence of his ordeal.
The story made national headlines.
Nearly five years after his mother and stepfather were sentenced to 15 years in prison as part of a plea deal, the two could be up for parole, according to the Paulding County District Attorney. In his first public interview since his ordeal, Comer said Thursday he doesn't want that to happen.
“I don’t think that’s right,” he said. “I don’t like it at all.”
Mitch Comer, who now goes by Mitt, said Paul and Sheila Comer should serve more prison time, and DA Dick Donovan agrees.
“Letting them out after just five years just doesn’t … it offends me as a prosecutor and I’m sure it would offend the people of Paulding County if they knew about it,” Donovan said.
Despite the two years of his life that was taken from him, Comer has flourished, completing high school and now studying at Kennesaw State University. His passion is electronics, and one day, he’d like to be inventor. Until then, he’s like any other college student, he says. He’s managed to put his abuse behind him.
“A long time ago, I heard about a dude that was left in a closet and he came out happy, and I said I’m going to be that dude, too,” Comer said.
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