Police: Man uses electric choke collars and pipes for YEARS to ‘discipline’ wife and kids

Police arrested a Philadelphia man after he reportedly abused his wife and two children for numerous years by making them wear dog shock collars, and by torturing them with pins, needles, dowels, pipes, and other objects.

NBC reports that Joseph Myhre, 44, was arrested and charged with several felony offenses, including aggravated assault, strangulation, and other related charges. The arrest occurred after a March 15 incident which spurred a three-month investigation, after the suspect’s wife met with authorities at the Einstein Medical Center Montgomery.

She told them that after Myhre beat her severely, she drove herself to the hospital once he fell asleep and couldn’t stop her. She had a fractured skull after Myhre reportedly punched her numerous times in the head. He was subsequently arrested at his home and charged with assault.

Authorities began investigating the family situation, and determined that Myhre abused his two children, a 13-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy, for years on end. Myhre home-schooled his children for six years. During that time, he allegedly stuck lancets underneath their fingernails and toenails, shocked them with electric-shock dog collars, and beat them with pipes, wooden dowels, a shoehorn, and pliers.

The boy told police that his dad had beaten him up at least “100 times,” starting when he was around 5 years old. He said his father punched, kicked and choked him, and beat him with PVC pipes and other objects. He remembered vividly how Myhre tortured him with the electric-shock dog collar.

“He usually put on a low number. It went to 1 to 100. It would be around a 40. If he was angry he would put it up to 100, which really hurt and took all the feeling out of my legs which hurt.”

According to Lower Providence Township police Detective Reginald Nealy Jr., the children had wooden boxes in their rooms that they slept in. There were little vents in each box so that they could breathe. In the living room, Myhre set up a white board that he used daily to write threatening messages on.

Investigators also found cellphone recordings where the children are heard screaming and crying for help while being abused.

Myhre is behind bars at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility with a $1 million bail amount. He’s scheduled for a preliminary hearing on April 19. He faces “aggravated assault, strangulation, conspiracy, unlawful restraint, and reckless endangering involving the children charges”, along with separate assault and reckless endangering charges for spousal abuse.

[Feature Photo: Montgomery County Jail]