Timothy Grantham, 34, has been charged with second-degree child cruelty and reckless conduct for allegedly keeping his two-year-old daughter living in deplorable conditions
Police in Georgia have arrested a mother and son after discovering a two-year-old girl living inside their home crawling with cockroaches and smeared with human feces.
Timothy Grantham, 34, and Barbara Coe, 57, have been charged with second-degree child cruelty and reckless conduct.
The incident began unfolding at around 6.30pm on Tuesday when a Columbus police officer arrived at a home in the 4000 block of Sixth Avenue in response to a complaint made by Coe, who said she wanted to evict her son from the residence, where she had been living for six months.
During a court hearing on Wednesday, police officer Nathan Tooley described how he entered the dilapidated house, which had no air condition despite the 100-degree heat, and was struck by an overwhelming stench, reported The Ledger-Enquirer.
As he quickly realized, the stomach-turning odor was coming from feces that were smeared on the walls and floor, and urine-soaked blankets that were piled in one corner. Cockroaches were scurrying all over the room, he said.
Living in filth: The toddler was rescued from this home in Columbus, Georgia, which was covered in feces and crawling with cockroaches
When he entered the bathroom, Tooley said there was even more human waste in the toilet and cockroaches in the shower.
The kitchen was cluttered with boxes and papers up to his waist, Tooley said. The refrigerator contained nothing but bread, some of which was covered in mold.
Tooley then opened a bedroom door and found Grantham and his girlfriend asleep in bed.
The man’s two-year-old daughter was sitting on the floor in front of a television wearing a dirty diaper, the officer recounted. Her hands were caked with feces.
The child had been in Grantham’s care from the time she was two months old, when her drug addict mother left her with him
An overturned ashtray was within the girl’s reach, as was a spinning fan without a protective grill on it.
Tooley called the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services asking to send a caseworker, who threw up upon entering the house, having been overcome by the foul smell.
Tooley said another police officer who responded to the scene also became sick to his stomach from the stench and vomited.
According to the cop, the toddler’s mother was a drug addict who had left her in Grantham’s care when the child was just two months old.
The two-year-old, who had not had any shots from the time she was a month old, was taken into the protective custody of the state.
Grantham and Coe were ordered held in Muscogee County Jail on bonds totaling $10,250 each, and a judge ruled there was enough evidence to send the case to trial.