Background: The Shelbyville, Indiana, home where Sophie Igou lived with her children (WXIN). Inset: Sophie Igou (Shelbyville Police Department).
An Indiana woman who was found with her dead toddler in the driveway of her home now faces charges of neglect.
Sophie Igou, 28, faced charges in Shelby County court on Tuesday, accused of two counts of felony neglect leading to the death of her toddler son and three counts related to neglect of her other two children. Igou was taken into custody on September 17 after she called emergency services to report the death of her son, Jasper, aged 22 months. According to court documents examined by Law&Crime, the first responders noted the boy had been deceased for “a significant amount of time.”
Following her consent for the authorities to search her premises, Igou was questioned by the police. She explained to a detective from Shelbyville Police Department that she was estranged from her husband and caring for their three children—Jasper, a 4-year-old, and an 8-year-old. The affidavit reported that her husband had not been in contact with the children for approximately five weeks.
Igou informed the police that on the day of the 911 call, Jasper had difficulty keeping food down and had vomited around noon. She also mentioned changing his diaper before putting him to bed that evening.
The police report indicated that Jasper’s remains showed “a significant state of decomposition” and that his diaper was “overflowing.” Upon being informed by the detective that Jasper had been deceased for “a significant period of time,” Igou reportedly showed surprise and asked, “Did I do this?”
When the police searched Igou’s residence, they found it “filled with trash and infested with insects,” displaying “signs of hoarding behavior.” The examination of the crib where Jasper presumably slept uncovered “decomposing material,” believed to have originated from his body.
Preliminary autopsy results indicated that Jasper was “extremely emaciated and malnourished.” At the time of his death, the toddler’s body weighed just 14 pounds; his recorded weight during a doctor’s visit in January 2024, when he was roughly 2 months old, was 10 pounds. The full autopsy results are still awaited.
Igou told police that she had not taken any of her children to the doctor because she was “trying to get her bearings as a single mom.” She told police that she was trying to get her oldest son enrolled in online schooling, but police said there was “no record” of the 8-year-old boy attending school.
Igou was charged with two counts of neglect of a dependent resulting in death and three counts of neglect of a dependent. She is being held at the Shelby County Jail on $2 million bond. Her next court date is scheduled for Nov. 19.
