An Indiana woman and her boyfriend face charges of neglecting a dependent after her disabled 19-year-old daughter was found deceased in what authorities described as “heartbreaking and unacceptable” conditions.
Authorities, including police and medical teams, responded to a call at the residence shortly after 11 a.m. on July 24 and discovered Caleigh Lindsay had died there, according to the Richmond Police Department. Two other minor children were also living in the house, which was described as being in “deplorable and unsafe conditions.”
The children’s mother, Liza Lindsay, and Daryl Grubbs were each charged with two counts of neglect of a dependent, police said on Monday.
“Currently, the cause and manner of death are still pending,” police indicated. “The Wayne County Coroner’s Office is reviewing medical records, autopsy results, and toxicology reports before making a final conclusion.” Preliminary autopsy findings suggest a probable seizure related to complications from Pitt-Hopkins syndrome was the cause, as reported by WXIN.
Court documents revealed that Caleigh Lindsay was discovered in a closed-off space similar to a “stall,” according to WXIN. The area was padded approximately four feet high on every side, with visible holes in all the walls, including the door.
Lindsay was located on the floor surrounded by about 12 soiled diapers, wearing a partially fastened diaper. The documents noted both she and the walls were smeared with a brown substance believed to be feces.
Liza Lindsay informed officers that her daughter was disabled from birth. Caleigh was nonverbal, autistic, had epilepsy, required a wheelchair, and suffered from microcephalic disease, mitochondrial disease, and Pitt-Hopkins syndrome. She had been dependent on a feeding tube since she was ten, her mother explained.
The mother also said her daughter frequently had seizures and the holes in the stalls walls came from her hitting her head when she had seizures.
She said she last saw her daughter shortly before 11 p.m. the night before when she changed her diaper and gave her medications and fluids. Grubbs found the young woman dead the next morning. He said they waited several minutes to call 911 until the mother calmed down.
When police arrived, they were met by a strong odor they described as a combination of urine, feces, and garbage. Officers found rooms with piles of trash, fly strips covered in dead insects, and bathtubs filled with trash.
The Wayne County Health Department found ammonia levels in the house five times higher than what’s considered to be safe and black mold in the refrigerator.
According to Law&Crime, Lindsay bonded out of jail on Friday, but Grubbs was still behind bars on Monday.
