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Parents ignore crying infant chewed by rats · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Tragic incident for Southwest Arkansas infant just fifteen days old.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Kansas judge ordering a teen couple to have no contact
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  Speaker 1: with their children after police say their infant was severely
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: bitten by rats in their home. Her parents are in
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  Speaker 1: jail after the child was severely bitten up to one
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  Speaker 1: hundred times by rats. In the emergency room, nurse told
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  Speaker 1: the investigators that the fifteen day old baby had suffered
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  Speaker 1: bite wounds on her arms, face, fingers, and hands. This
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  Speaker 1: is crime Stories with Nancy Grace, nineteen year old Erica
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  Speaker 1: stry rock In an eighteen year old Charles Elliott of
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  Speaker 1: Magnolia facing charges of permitting abuse and endangering the welfare
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  Speaker 1: of a child. Investigators say both parents admitted they knew
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  Speaker 1: rats were in the house and did nothing to get
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  Speaker 1: rid of them. The injury is so bad she needs
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: reconstructive surgery on her face. But this case is about
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  Speaker 1: is some faithfulness world don't need to be parents. Parents
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  Speaker 1: arrested after their fifteen day old baby is found covered
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  Speaker 1: in one hundred rat bites. Repeat, parents arrested after their
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  Speaker 1: fifteen day old baby girl is found covered in one hundred,
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  Speaker 1: one zero zero rat bites. I'm Nancy Grace, this is
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  Speaker 1: crime stories. Thank you for being with us. This is
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  Speaker 1: so painful to even discuss. But that's the thing about justice.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: You can't turn away from it. You have to face
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: it head on and try to do something about it.
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  Speaker 1: This little baby girl, fifteen days old, was found in
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  Speaker 1: a blood soaked crib, weighing just five pounds. The parents,
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  Speaker 1: Erica Shyrock and Charles Elliott, now charged with child endangerment.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: I think the charges should be much more severe than
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  Speaker 1: child endangerment. There was all so an inch wide gash
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: on the baby's forehead. It was so deep you could
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  Speaker 1: see a portion of her skull. Okay, the police searched
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  Speaker 1: the couple's Arkansas home. They found her crib. It was
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: bloody and there were rat paw prints, a baby's blood
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  Speaker 1: soaked hat, a blanket was blood on it, and rat feces.
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  Speaker 1: That's where the little girl was living. The fifteen day
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  Speaker 1: old baby rat prints. Doctors conclude the baby suffered severe
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: skin destruction from rat feeding. That would have taken hours
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: and hours to occur. It's not like a rat got
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  Speaker 1: in beknownst to the parents chewed on the baby's skin. No,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: this went on for hours. Their newborn baby girl covered
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  Speaker 1: in blood, suffering from up to one hundred rat bites
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  Speaker 1: all over her body. Now, what's going to happen? This
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: endangerment to the welfare of a minor. That's a slap
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  Speaker 1: on the wrist. This needs to be much much more severe. Now,
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  Speaker 1: according to the arrest affidavit, with me the Duke, Alan
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Duke joining me out of l A. We've gotten a
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  Speaker 1: hold of the arrest affidavit and the whole thing began
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  Speaker 1: to unfold. Around eleven thirty in the morning on a Sunday,
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  Speaker 1: police were called to Magnoila Regional Medical Center about a
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  Speaker 1: little baby that had a rat bite. The e r
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: nurse says that the girl was just fifteen days old
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  Speaker 1: and she only weighed five pounds. Now, see that doesn't
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  Speaker 1: strike me as odd, Alan, because when Lucy was born
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: she was just two pounds. But rat bites all over
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  Speaker 1: her body, arms, fingers, hands, face, and that gash on
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  Speaker 1: her forehead so deep it exposed a part of her skull.
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  Speaker 1: According to Arkansas Matters dot com, they got ahold of
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  Speaker 1: shy Rock, who had been dating Elliott for a couple
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  Speaker 1: of years, and she told believe she put her daughter
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  Speaker 1: to sleep five thirty a m in the bassinet next
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  Speaker 1: to the parents bed, and woke up to screams just
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  Speaker 1: two hours later. She says when she looked in the cribs,
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  Speaker 1: she found her girl was covered in blood. The boyfriend,
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  Speaker 1: interviewed separately, said he saw bloody rat footprints in the cribs.
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  Speaker 1: Both parents say they knew their home was infested by rats,
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  Speaker 1: but never did anything about it. Okay, Alan Duke weigh in,
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  Speaker 1: this is stunning. Eighteen year old woman, nineteen year old
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  Speaker 1: young man, and you just got to wonder how did
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: they prepare to be a parent. Obviously they had absolutely
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  Speaker 1: no preparation. I mean, how does this happen? This is
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: in southwestern Arkansas, and I know people in Arkansas love
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: their children. They love their children. What do you mean
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  Speaker 1: how did it happen? Through neglect? Hours and hours of neglect.
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  Speaker 1: You know that baby was screaming her head off. That
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  Speaker 1: baby would be dead, I believe if not for Elliott's mother.
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  Speaker 1: The couple apparently, according to what I understand, didn't want
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  Speaker 1: to take the child to the hospital because they said, oh,
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  Speaker 1: it'll be taken away from us. This child would But
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  Speaker 1: the mother saw this horrible situation and persuaded them to
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  Speaker 1: take the child to the hospital. So they weren't even
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  Speaker 1: going to take the baby to the hospital. No, no,
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  Speaker 1: they were afraid to catch this, Elliott says. They cleaned
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  Speaker 1: up some of some of the blood. That's the man,
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  Speaker 1: and they waited an additional hour and a half for
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  Speaker 1: Barton to arrive at their home before seeking medical help.
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  Speaker 1: What they waited almost two hours before getting medical help
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  Speaker 1: with a hundred rat bites, I mean a hundred rat
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  Speaker 1: bites on you alan would be life threatening, much less
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  Speaker 1: on a little baby. Oh my god, yes, I literally
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  Speaker 1: weigh forty times what this baby did. This was a
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  Speaker 1: tiny little child, a little thing. Had to go undergo
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  Speaker 1: reconstructive surgery to close the wound on her forehead. I
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  Speaker 1: don't know if you can get a gaping wound like
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  Speaker 1: that from rats. That sounds like something else, like a
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  Speaker 1: blow to the head. Yeah, it may be. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: these rats might have been about the size or close
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  Speaker 1: to the size of the baby. We don't know. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: the physician determined the damage took hours and hours to occur,
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  Speaker 1: and the baby would have been in distress and translations
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  Speaker 1: screaming her head off during this time. The parents he says.
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  Speaker 1: The doctor says he or she were either quote incapacitated
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  Speaker 1: or absent not to have responded to the baby's distress
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  Speaker 1: translation screaming. They let the baby lie there screaming while
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  Speaker 1: it was being chewed up by rats. Alan, this baby
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  Speaker 1: was sleeping right by their bed. Now, my grandkids two
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  Speaker 1: and four, when the four year old was just an
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  Speaker 1: infant like this, she would come over and she would
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  Speaker 1: stay a little bass in that next to me. I
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: would know if she was awake, I would know if
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  Speaker 1: she was trying to crawl out. I was very aware.
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  Speaker 1: How could they not be aware that this was going on.
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  Speaker 1: I have not read anywhere that there were drugs involved.
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  Speaker 1: Have you seen any indication of that? No? But I
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  Speaker 1: do know that this mom, who was now nineteen, has
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  Speaker 1: another baby, had another baby in two thousand and fifteen,
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  Speaker 1: so she had experience. Yes, she's had children, she's had
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  Speaker 1: a baby before. She knew darn well that she was
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: ignoring the child, and that equals child abuse. They're being
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: held without BOB, but these charges must be upgraded because
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  Speaker 1: on these charges they're facing very little jail time, and
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: they've got to get the baby away from them. No
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  Speaker 1: contact with the baby. I'm wondering how that's going to work,
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  Speaker 1: because of course you want the kid to be with
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  Speaker 1: the parents, But no, I doubt but there's a grandmom,
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  Speaker 1: Grandmom Elliott. No, and not even not even with the grandmother.
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  Speaker 1: You'll let the mother back. No, no, Now, Grandma Elliott
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  Speaker 1: is the dad's mom. I'm just wondering if that's not
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  Speaker 1: the best place. Is that the best place? You don't
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  Speaker 1: think so. No, it's not the best place. Not that
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  Speaker 1: there's anything wrong with the grandmother. She's the one that
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  Speaker 1: saved the baby's life. But here's the problem with giving
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  Speaker 1: the I would argue for the grand mom, just from
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  Speaker 1: what I know. I was trying to say. The problem
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  Speaker 1: with the grandmother is this, she will have pity on
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  Speaker 1: her child and allow the baby to be with the parents.
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  Speaker 1: And that's a big en. Oh, the baby cannot go
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  Speaker 1: to the parents. We don't even know where the first
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  Speaker 1: baby is, the two year old. God only knows what
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  Speaker 1: happened to that baby. Now there's this one. There are many,
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  Speaker 1: many cases where these teenagers have babies and they end
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  Speaker 1: up with the grandparents, and the grandparents are wonderful. That
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  Speaker 1: maybe alan that may very well be, But the baby
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  Speaker 1: has been through enough. I would not leave it up
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  Speaker 1: to chance and quit calling them teens. Okay, yes, they're
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  Speaker 1: eighteen at nineteen, but authority had children and that as
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  Speaker 1: an adult under the law, I don't want to hear
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  Speaker 1: about that when you were comparing an eighteen year old who,
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  Speaker 1: under other circumstances I may feel compassion for, but compared
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  Speaker 1: to a fifteen day old baby, you know, they got
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  Speaker 1: a front rose seat in first class straight to hell.
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  Speaker 1: Okay for what they did to this baby. God only
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  Speaker 1: knows what may have happened to the other baby. So
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  Speaker 1: I'm just wondering when this case is going to go forward.
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  Speaker 1: Do we know any thing about that yet? They're in
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  Speaker 1: court this week for an initial arraignment, but nothing happens there.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, they are in jail right now and they
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: are facing these charges, and of course it's just the
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: phase to where it's being investigated, so it could very
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: well the district attorney, the prosecutor could very well decide
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  Speaker 1: that it's more serious and upgrade. Actually, the charges have
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: already been upgraded a little bit from what there were
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  Speaker 1: originally filed as what do you mean they're in the
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  Speaker 1: Columbia County Justice and detention facility on charges of endangering
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  Speaker 1: the welfare of a minor first degree. They've been upgraded
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  Speaker 1: to a Class B felony. Not being the prosecutor of
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: the lawyer in Arkansas, I can't tell you how significant
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  Speaker 1: that upgrade was, but maybe they'll upgrade it again. I
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  Speaker 1: really think it needs to be aggravated child abuse. I
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  Speaker 1: really do. But you know you've got rats, right, What
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  Speaker 1: do you do to protect your child from rats? Other
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  Speaker 1: than moving? What can you do? Call an exterminator? Okay,
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  Speaker 1: but what else? Well, one thing you can do if
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  Speaker 1: you can't keep the baby away from the rats is
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: let the baby go to the grandmother's or when the
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  Speaker 1: baby screams, you check on it. Hello, the baby was
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  Speaker 1: screaming her head off for hours. I'm not saying the
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  Speaker 1: fact that they could not afford and I don't know
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  Speaker 1: that that's true for an exterminator to come. Okay, I'm
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  Speaker 1: not holding that against him. What I am holding against
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  Speaker 1: them is this baby screamed her head off for hours
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  Speaker 1: and hours. Even the e R Doctor knew that that's
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  Speaker 1: not a j D. He's an m D. He's not
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  Speaker 1: a cop. The baby was screaming her head off and
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  Speaker 1: nobody came. Nobody saved her white. That's what I want
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  Speaker 1: to know. And they can give me those answers from
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  Speaker 1: their hot seat by Satan. As far as I'm concerned,
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  Speaker 1: I don't care what the answer is. Okay, because this
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  Speaker 1: baby has suffered so much. You've got a two week
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  Speaker 1: old infant, and let's say, up until those last hours
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  Speaker 1: they do, we're doing a wonderful job at this child.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Let's just assume that for this moment, the last couple
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  Speaker 1: of hours, the baby was crying. Have you not ever
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  Speaker 1: let your child just continue to cry? You have two
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  Speaker 1: of them continue to cry in the crib because they say, oh,
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  Speaker 1: don't pick them up every time they get they start
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  Speaker 1: crying because I'll get spoiled. Have you ever followed that philosophy?
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  Speaker 1: Or every time John David started crying you picked him up.
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  Speaker 1: If you were here in this room, I would snatch
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  Speaker 1: you up by your lips and you would be begging
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  Speaker 1: through your ears to be I did not ever let
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  Speaker 1: them lay there and cry. Absolutely not never, no, not once.
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  Speaker 1: Haven't you ever heard that advice? Yes? I have heard it,
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  Speaker 1: and I think it's cruel and mean, because in my mind,
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  Speaker 1: when a baby cries it's for one of a couple
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  Speaker 1: of reasons. It's hungry, it's wet, or it's hurting, or
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  Speaker 1: it's sleepy. Those are the four reasons I think a
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: baby or or it's scared. I think those are the
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: only reasons of baby cries. And if I was there
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  Speaker 1: and the baby cried, it was picked up one or both.
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  Speaker 1: Darn right. You obviously remember your first two weeks with twins.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: It was the toughest two weeks of your life. I
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: bet I would say it was. It was physically demanding
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: because I also nearly died during childbirth and had multiple
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: blood clots to my lungs and congestive heart failure. So yeah,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: I had a hard time. You had your mom there though, right.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: I had my mom, I had my dad, had my husband.
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  Speaker 1: We had a lady that helped me during the first
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: three or four months. I could hardly even walk at
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: that time, but I did, and when she would be tired,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: she would call her sister. She and her sister and
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: we all got through it. And remember John David came
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: home several weeks before Lucy, so I was back and
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: forth taking care of John David and back to the
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: hospital to be with Lucy and that lasted. They were
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: both in Nick a long time. But yes, when they
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: cry and I picked him up, and when they cry
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: now I still go to them immediately. You know, in
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: a couple of years they won't need mommy anymore, but
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: right now they do. But you're getting me off the subject.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: I want to get back on these rabbis. I think
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: it's right on the subject. Actually, I think it's right
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: on the subject, because my point is that Erica eighteen,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: yes an adult, she's nineteen. She's nineteen. Charles is eighteen,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: she's a couple of months from twenty. Probably didn't have
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: a lot of financial resources, like you want to call
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: an exterminator and do, but you would think, what do
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: you do to get rid of the rats? Have you
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: ever had rats in your house? I mean you're from
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Making Georgia. There are rats down there. You know. It's
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: really weird. It's a weird thing about you. You all
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: ways suggest that some region is somehow what more rat
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: infested than another. No, I have not had rats yet,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: but i'd have had a gopher in the house this
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: past two weeks, this past week, two of them. I
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: think I haven't gotten a good identification it could be
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: the same one. I thought I got him out. Well
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: he's back, but a rat. No, I don't think gophers
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: are gonna mess with the twins. Yeah, you know what,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: he's kind of cute. I'm more concerned about the cat
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: eating him. But can we get back on can we
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: get back on these two and why it shouldn't be
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: aggravated child abuse? They knew they had rats in their imagination.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: I guess they just didn't think that the rats could
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: crawl into the crib, you know what. I'd like to
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: believe that. But the man, the father, said to police
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: he had seen the rat on top of a dresser.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: I believe it was a dresser or a countertop. So
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: he has never logged on and seen pictures of rats
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: somewhere or the other on the table I remember so
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: shock You remember the Was it a Del Taco or
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: a ok if? I don't know some I don't know
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: what restaurant it was in New York. Somebody walked through
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: beside it at night and there were several rats like
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: having a party up on the table, and then it
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: got posted online that just happened. So, yeah, everybody knows
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: a rat. I don't know how they get up there,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: but they can get up on top of the table,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: and of course that means they can get in the
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: baby's crib. I guess this should be a warning to
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: all parents out there, protect your little babies from rats.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Alan that goes without saying. What I'm talking about now
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: is justice, and for me, that only answer is aggravated
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: child abuse. That's where I'm coming from. And we're on
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: the story right now. These two are being held without bond.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: I want to find out where the baby's going and
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: how her skin reconstructive surgery has turned out. And when
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: I know those answers, I will round up the duke
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: and we'll be back. This is Nancy Grace Crime Story.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: Signing off, goodbye friend,