Seven relatives charged in boy’s starvation death

Published 2:26 pm Wednesday, June 16, 2021

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BARTLETT (AP) — Seven members of a Tennessee family have been charged with murder in the starvation death of a 14-year-old boy, authorities said.
A mother and six relatives who lived together in a community home arrangement in the Memphis suburb of Bartlett have been indicted on charges of murder in the perpetration of aggravated child abuse and neglect, the Shelby County district attorney’s office said Tuesday.

An eighth relative, the boy’s grandmother, died in May. Her charges were dismissed.

Police went to a home in January 2020 and found the boy unresponsive on the floor in the living room.

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An autopsy showed the boy weighed 60 pounds (27 kilograms) and died of starvation, investigators said.

The boy’s 12-year-old sister was hospitalized with moderate malnutrition. Also included in the indictment were charges of aggravated child abuse related to the girl.

Online court records do not show whether the defendants have lawyers to speak about the charges.