Disabled Georgia woman kept in squalor rescued on her birthday
A Putnam County woman rescued Monday from severe neglect and squalor celebrated her birthday in a hospital Tuesday, with flowers from the Eatonton police chief.
Eatonton police removed three children from the same house where the 23-year-old woman with cerebral palsy was found malnourished and locked in a bedroom.
Eatonton Police Chief Kent Lawrence told Channel 2 Action News this is the worst case of abuse he’s ever seen.
When the chief received a tip alleging abuse, he sent an officer to check out the house at 405 New Street.
The girl’s 40-year-old mother, Felicia Nelson Clements, denied having anyone bedridden in the house.
Upon inspecting the house, one of the bedroom doors was locked and Clements lied, saying it was an aunt’s room, Lawrence said.
Once police were inside the room, they were horrified to find a woman covered in feces and soiled from urine, with open sores on her body, according to Channel 2.
“[The victim was] so tiny, [she had been] in one cradled position so long, she was almost easy to overlook in a room littered with waste, trash, blood,” Lawrence said.
The chief estimated the woman’s weight at no more than 42 pounds.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation special agent Ryan Carmichael told Channel 2 the woman’s hair was matted, her body was covered in sores and she was not immediately discernible as a human being.
“She had insects living on her body,” Carmichael told the station.
Lawrence said the alleged neglect must have been going on for years.
“When I looked at her and told her that I had help on the way, she smiled,” Lawrence said.
The mother and her 25-year-old boyfriend, Galvin Evans, were arrested and charged with cruelty to a disabled person.
Clements was also charged with two counts of cruelty to children and making false statements, authorities said.
A GBI official told Channel 2 the woman was in stable condition at a local hospital Tuesday. Lawrence sent the flowers over when he learned Tuesday was the woman’s birthday, according to Channel 2.
