A local family member is speaking out after several adults were arrested on suspicion of transporting children in the back of an unventilated U-Haul truck in Tennessee.


According to the Knox County Sheriff's website, Rocky Ewing, 25, who was driving the truck, is charged with 7 counts of reckless endangerment. The parents of the two children, 30-year-old Joshuwa Jackson and his 30-year-old wife, Mary, are charged with two counts of child endangerment.

--CLICK HERE TO READ THE KNOX COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE REPORT

The sheriff's website said, "There are conflicting stories, but all the people claim to be related. They said they were moving from Steubenville, Ohio to Fort Myers, Florida. All said they were from Steubenville except one man who was from Wheeling, West Virginia."


According to the Knox County Sheriff's Office, a 911 call came in about two children being beaten and thrown into the back of a U-Haul truck on Aug. 2.

The website said, "Officers with the Knox County Sheriff's Office spotted the truck and pulled it over just west of Watt Road at 1 p.m. and found three white males in the front seat and two children (a 6 year old girl and a 9 year old boy) and 4 white males and one white female in the back of the locked truck. The truck was filled with furniture with people sitting on dressers and tables. There was no ventilation. The parents of the children were in a separate car and pulled over when officers stopped the truck."

A grandmother of the children who was not there, Marti Mellott, of Follansbee, said the suspects are her son, daughter-in-law and nephew. Mellott said she knows the children shouldn't have been allowed back there.


"They left for Florida because they had jobs down there and a home waiting. They were trying to better their life for their kids and they did take a little extra people," Mellott said.


Mellott said it's hard for her because she says she can't do anything to help out.


"Yes they did wrong having the kids in the back, but I think the way that Tennessee is handling it, they are making it seem and sound like they are the new age Bonnie and Clyde," Mellott said. "They would never hurt their kids, never. I've been around Mary since I've known her and in 12 years I've never seen her hurt a child. And I know my son would never hurt his children. … It's bigger than it is. They are blowing it all out of proportion. Josh and Mary are good parents. They are trying to do the best they can for their children," Mellott said.


The suspects face reckless endangerment charges with more than $15,000 bail combined. As of Monday, they remained in jail in Knox County, Tenn.

The children were released to the custody of their other grandmother, who was riding in the back of the truck. Contrary to the sheriff's report, Mellott said the children were not released to their other grandmother; she said her brother, the children's uncle, took custody of the children after the incident.  The sheriff's office said the truck was towed because out of all the people not arrested, "only the grandmother had a valid driver's license and she didn't want to drive the truck," the sheriff's release stated. However, Mellott said she and a Texas woman who was not there at the time of the incident are the children's only grandmothers. The sheriff's website said the Department of Children's Services has been notified.