bongompya
JF-Expert Member
- May 10, 2015
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Two young children found dead inside a California storage unit died from ongoing physical abuse, investigators have said.
Authorities have said the three-year-old girl and six-year-old boy were thought to have been killed in an apartment in Salinas around Thanksgiving, before their bodies were taken 300 miles and put inside a plastic barrel in the unit in Redding.
At a news conference on Thursday, prosecutors said they plan to file first-degree murder charges against 39-year-old Tami Huntsman and a 17-year-old male.
They were arrested after police responded to reports of a nine-year-old girl suffering from abuse and neglect near a house in Plumas County, Quincy, on 11 December, where Huntsman had recently moved.
Both suspects have been charged with child abuse, torture and mayhem involving the nine-year-old and are being held on $1m bonds.
Kelly McMillin, Salinas Police Department Chief, told the news conference: "In my 32-year career, this is the most egregious child abuse homicide case I've ever seen."
Elliot Robinson, head of the Monterey County Department of Social Services, said the woman was visited by county child welfare workers four times over a year after complaints on neglect.
The complaints, between September 2014 and August this year, involved allegations of poor supervision, improper feeding, lice infestation and dirty household conditions, Mr Robinson said.
None of those complaints alleged any physical abuse and the five children living with Huntsman were not removed because there was no evidence they were at risk, Mr Robinson said.
He said: "General neglect calls rarely will result in the removal of the child. More often than not it's about poverty."
The identity of the 17-year-old is now being withheld as authorities decide whether to charge him as an adult.
The names of the two victims and their cause of death have not been released.
Kids In Storage Unit Died From 'Ongoing Abuse' - BONGO YETU
Authorities have said the three-year-old girl and six-year-old boy were thought to have been killed in an apartment in Salinas around Thanksgiving, before their bodies were taken 300 miles and put inside a plastic barrel in the unit in Redding.
At a news conference on Thursday, prosecutors said they plan to file first-degree murder charges against 39-year-old Tami Huntsman and a 17-year-old male.
They were arrested after police responded to reports of a nine-year-old girl suffering from abuse and neglect near a house in Plumas County, Quincy, on 11 December, where Huntsman had recently moved.
Both suspects have been charged with child abuse, torture and mayhem involving the nine-year-old and are being held on $1m bonds.
Kelly McMillin, Salinas Police Department Chief, told the news conference: "In my 32-year career, this is the most egregious child abuse homicide case I've ever seen."
Elliot Robinson, head of the Monterey County Department of Social Services, said the woman was visited by county child welfare workers four times over a year after complaints on neglect.
The complaints, between September 2014 and August this year, involved allegations of poor supervision, improper feeding, lice infestation and dirty household conditions, Mr Robinson said.
None of those complaints alleged any physical abuse and the five children living with Huntsman were not removed because there was no evidence they were at risk, Mr Robinson said.
He said: "General neglect calls rarely will result in the removal of the child. More often than not it's about poverty."
The identity of the 17-year-old is now being withheld as authorities decide whether to charge him as an adult.
The names of the two victims and their cause of death have not been released.
Kids In Storage Unit Died From 'Ongoing Abuse' - BONGO YETU
