A third northwest Georgia woman has been arrested for her alleged role in keeping two special needs children locked in cages for “several months at least.”
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced Tuesday the arrest of 64-year-old Gloria Jane Brown, of Cohutta, who was described as a "caregiver" for the 11-year-old boy discovered last week in a makeshift cage inside his Murray County home. Authorities believe the boy's 8-year-old sister had been kept in a second cage.
Brown’s arrest comes five days after those of Stephanie Elizabeth Stone, the alleged victims’ mother, and Wanda Sue Redfern, another woman Murray County sheriff’s deputies encountered in the home. All three women are charged with child cruelty and false imprisonment. Stone also is charged with possession of a controlled substance.
GBI spokesman Greg Ramey said Brown is a relative of Stone’s who had been asked to watch the children.
Brown was at the home on Chatsworth’s Bahamas Drive on Thursday morning when a deputy responded to a 911 call about a child left alone there, Ramey said. The deputy departed after seeing Brown with the 8-year-old girl, but returned that afternoon after another 911 call.
The second time around, the deputy went inside and found two cages made of bed frame parts. The 11-year-old boy was allegedly inside one of them.
Authorities said Redfern, who is reported to be marrying into Stone’s family, was at the home during the second visit.
Ramey said both children likely had been confined off and on for an extended period of time.
“We feel very safe in saying that we know that it wasn’t just a one-time thing,” Ramey said, “and we know that it probably went back for a number of months.”
Ramey said that a bond hearing was scheduled Tuesday afternoon for Brown. Attempts to contact the Murray County Sheriff’s Office were not immediately successful, and the result of that hearing was unclear.
Last week, Stone, 34, and Redfern, 49, were each granted $25,000 bonds. Their statuses at the Murray County jail, however, were unclear.
An employee of the Murray County Sheriff's Office previously told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the women had posted their bonds and been released, but Ramey said Tuesday afternoon that they remained incarcerated.
The children are in the custody of the Division of Family and Children Services.
Murray County is about 90 miles northwest of Atlanta.
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