An Ohio woman and her boyfriend have been charged with child abuse after a 9-year-old boy was found weighing just 30 pounds earlier this month.
Angel Holland and Aaron Stalling have been charged with three counts each of felonious assault and endangering children for that boy and two other children ages 8 and 6, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. Court records describe Holland as the 9-year-old’s “custodian” and say she had custody of him since 2020.
Police in Elmwood Place, a tiny village almost completely surrounded by Cincinnati, were called to a home on September 13 for child not breathing. They found the 9-year-old boy in cardiac arrest and revived him before taking him to Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
That’s where staff found the child weighed only 30 pounds, was severely malnourished, and had a core body temperature of 80 degrees.
Holland told investigators the boy had complained of a stomach ache three days earlier and had fallen rcently, but she did not seek medical care. On the day the boy stopped breathing, she said she “was preoccupied with another child” but admitted hearing the boy having trouble breathing.
When told the child’s weight and that he was severely malnourished, she told investigators, “We feed him.”
Investigators also found the boy “showed signs of physical abuse” and that the other two children were also malnourished and needed to be hospitalized for treatment.
Police secured a search warrant to check the house and found “multiple items of evidentiary value, including bungee cords, a belt, and soiled towels observed inside a vehicle registered to Ms. Holland,” an affidavit said.
A judge set bond for the pair at $600,000 each and issued a court order to stay away from the children if they are released. They must also stay home with an electronic monitor.
According to WXIX, the 9-year-old boy remains hospitalized and is still fighting for his life. Ronald Sanders, the children’s grandfather, told the station the other two children are severely underweight but are going to survive. He said he had not visited the boy in person since his hospitalization.
“I have seen a picture of him and it was literally the most horrific, disturbing thing I have ever seen in my life,” Sanders said.
Prosecutors plan to take the case to a grand jury on October 3.
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[Featured image: Aaron Stalling and Angel Holland/Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office]
