Parents starved daughter, let son molest her in exchange for food: GA prosecutors
The parents of teen siblings exposed to “unlivable” conditions and cruel punishments are heading to prison, according to Georgia prosecutors.
Jurors convicted the Catoosa County couple on two counts each of first- and second-degree child cruelty on March 27, the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office said in an April 21 news release.
The pair were accused of starving their daughter, who prosecutors said was molested by her older half-brother in exchange for food. Officials also cited “disrepair and filth” throughout the family’s home.
Both were sentenced to serve 20 years in prison.
“The wickedness of a parent who treats their own flesh and blood with such cruelty and neglect will be met here in Northwest Georgia with the full force of justice,” District Attorney Clayton M. Fuller said in a statement.
The DA’s office didn’t publicly identify the couple to protect their children’s identities.
The charges stemmed from a December 2023 investigation by the Catoosa County Sheriff’s Office into conditions at a mobile home the couple shared with their kids, prosecutors said. The county’s Division of Family and Children’s Services and codes enforcement office were also involved.
Investigators said the home did not have adequate heat or hot water. The only source of running water was in the bathtub, according to codes enforcement officials, who deemed the home “unlivable.”
Beyond the filthy conditions, authorities said the couple shot their children with Airsoft guns as punishment on multiple occasions. They also limited what their daughter could eat and put a padlock on the fridge, prosecutors said.
Officials said the couple’s son bribed his half-sister into sex acts in exchange for food.
“The parents were aware of the molestation and left their daughter alone with her half-brother on a weekly basis while staying at another home they owned,” the DA’s office said.
Their son was sentenced to life imprisonment with 25 years to serve, according to prosecutors.
“Parents should be the first in line to protect children, but if they fail, we will step into that breach of our most basic foundations of our community,” Fuller said.
Catoosa County is about a 20-mile drive southeast from Chattanooga, Tennessee.
This story was originally published April 23, 2025 at 10:52 AM with the headline "Parents starved daughter, let son molest her in exchange for food: GA prosecutors."