Malnourished toddler found dead had been eating walls and diapers, police say

TELL CITY, Ind. (WFIE/Gray News) — An Indiana toddler who died from suspected child neglect and starvation is thought to have eaten diapers and drywall in desperation, police said.

According to a press release, officers with the Tell City Police Department were dispatched on March 31 to a home for a report of a small child not breathing.

Officers said the caller, identified as Trevor Reichard-Hayes, told dispatchers that his wife Katherine Carter found the child and brought him downstairs.

COURTESY: Tell City Police Department

When they arrived, officers performed CPR on the 2-year-old boy on the living room floor.

Police said the couple told officers the last time they had seen the child alive was around 11 p.m. the previous night, over 14 hours before the 911 call was made.

Officers said the child was pronounced dead at the scene and had been dead for several hours.

Police said the child appeared to be extremely skinny, malnourished and had over 40 sores or bug bites on his skin.

Carter told police the boy had been eating his diapers. Officers suspected this was due to hunger.

After being granted a search warrant, police said they noticed poor living conditions that included feces on the floor in the children’s bedrooms, an abundance of drywall and paint chips, dirt and pieces of diapers lying everywhere, and insects in the home.

In one of the children’s rooms, there was a small bed, pieces of diaper and drywall debris all over the floor. There was also a training toilet that was “full of feces in urine” that appeared not to have been cleaned in days or perhaps weeks.

The child who died weighed about 15 pounds when he should have weighed around 30 pounds due to his age and height, police said.

During an autopsy, officials removed material from the child’s system that was consistent with the drywall, paint chips or spackling from the home, along with diaper material.

The two other children who were found in the home were removed.

Reichard-Hayes and Carter were both arrested and are charged with murder, neglect of dependent resulting in death, neglect of dependent resulting in bodily injury, and neglect of dependent.

They are expected to appear in court Tuesday.

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