911 call made before Las Vegas children found in cage

Amanda Stamper told a Walgreens employee she was hiding in the stockroom because her husband was beating children and going to kill her, according to 911 audio released by the Metropolitan Police Department.

Officers later found two bruised children locked in a dog kennel at the couple’s nearby apartment.

A Walgreens employee on West Flamingo Road called police around 8 a.m. June 12 to report a woman in her stockroom.

“She says her husband is trying to kill her,” the employee told police.

Stamper took the phone from the employee and said her husband, 31-year-old Travis Doss, had threatened to kill her and hurt their children. He was parked outside the drugstore in a white Dodge Challenger, she said, and asked her to go in the drugstore and put money on a card.

She said Doss had her phone and her 2-year-old in the car.

“I’m just terrified right now,” Stamper said. “I need somebody to come here quick.”

Stamper said she slept in a car the night before with her 2-year-old daughter, while Doss and his children were in their apartment near Valley View Boulevard and Flamingo Road.

Stamper and Doss were arrested at their apartment and later indicted on seven counts of child abuse.

Arrest reports for Stamper and Doss detailed the belts, extension cords and a skillet Doss was accused of using to beat six children, ages 6 to 12. The couple told police that Doss had locked two boys in a kennel for stealing food, the arrest reports said.

The skillet had dents in it from the children’s heads, Stamper told police.

One of the children kept in the kennel had eyes that were black and swollen shut, bruises on his body, police said.

The child was extremely malnourished, anemic, needed a blood transfusion and both of his kidneys were enlarged. A doctor told police he would have died had he not been taken to University Medical Center, while a nurse told police that “this is the worst case of abuse she has seen in 13 years,” the report said.

“I really love this guy, but I can’t do this anymore,” Stamper said on the phone with police. “I’ve never seen this stuff happen in my whole life.”

She did not detail what abuse was happening until after police had seen the apartment, according to the report and audio.

In an interview with the Review-Journal on Tuesday, Stamper said she had tried to stand up for the children before, but Doss would physically abuse her. She said she was scared for her life and the children.

Stamper and Doss are scheduled to appear in court again Tuesday.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.