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Background: Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando, Fla. (Google Maps). Insets, left to right: Leroy Somersall III and Madison Smith (Seminole County Sheriff”s Office).
A couple from Florida has been detained while their twin infants, both 5 months old, are being treated for malnutrition at a hospital.
Leroy Somersall III, aged 24, and Madison Smith, aged 23, face charges of child neglect resulting in great bodily harm. Their arrest followed a visit to the hospital with their twins on January 6. According to an arrest affidavit referenced by ABC affiliate WFTV, Child Protective Services received a hotline tip about the condition of the twins, a boy and a girl, prompting police involvement.
Upon arrival at the hospital, detectives from the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office were informed by medical staff that the baby boy was in a state of severe dehydration and malnourishment, so severe that “every bone in his body” was visible.
The affidavit, also reviewed by Fox affiliate WOFL, revealed that both infants were critically malnourished and dehydrated, each weighing only 5.7 pounds at 5 months old. Notably, the baby girl had weighed more than that at birth, despite being born a month prematurely. Authorities noted that Smith tested positive for THC at the time of delivery.
Smith explained to the police that they took the babies to the hospital after noticing the boy was unresponsive. When questioned about their feeding practices, Smith mentioned that the pediatrician had advised increasing their formula intake to 70 to 80 milliliters every two hours. However, she admitted she had not consulted the pediatrician since September 2025, shortly after the babies were born.
Both parents told the officers they were unaware that they needed to increase the feeding amounts as their children grew. They also suggested that the babies’ thinness was due to Somersall’s naturally slim physique.
When investigators searched the RV where the family lived, they said they did not find any evidence of formula.
Somersall and Smith were both arrested and charged with child neglect with great bodily harm. Both parents are being held at the John E. Polk Correctional Facility on $100,000 bond. They are scheduled to appear in court on March 3.
Police said in the affidavit that both babies are expected to survive and have improved since being hospitalized. They may have suffered neurological damage.
