Inset: Rachel Nicole Blaylock (Baytown Police). Background: Home in Baytown, Texas, where Blaylock allegedly neglected her 11-year-old son with autism (Google Maps).
A Texas mother is facing criminal charges after her 11-year-old nonverbal son with autism was found to be malnourished, weighing just 46 pounds, with feces “caked” under his fingernails, according to cops.
Rachel Nicole Blaylock, 40, stands accused of injury to a child. The case began on May 13 when cops received a call to conduct an “urgent welfare check” at a home in the 200 block of Homan Street in Baytown, which is outside of Houston. When the responding officer knocked on the door, Blaylock answered and let her inside.
The officer immediately saw the home was infested with flies and reeked of fecal matter, with “the smell being bad enough she nearly threw up,” the affidavit said.
Blaylock took the cop to her son”s bedroom. She said she believed he had autism, though he had never been diagnosed. Blaylock said the boy would not use a toilet so he would go to the bathroom in his room and pick up the feces and throw it around, cops wrote. He also would not wear a diaper. His room was allegedly covered in fecal matter. The boy’s fingernails also had “caked” feces underneath them, the complaint stated.
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His door to his bedroom was a screen door that was locked from the outside so he was unable to leave on his own, the officer noted. The screen door was so his mom could keep an eye on him. A Child Protective Services investigator had previously told Blaylock to take her son to the hospital because he was so malnourished and weighed just 46 pounds. But the mother refused.
“I can’t just drop everything I’m f—ing doing and take him to the hospital so a quack a— doctor can say ‘ohh I don’t know what’s wrong with him so we can see another one,'” Blaylock allegedly said.
Cops spoke with Blaylock’s mother, who lived on the property. She was not impressed with her daughter’s parenting skills.
“She is not a good mom,” her mother allegedly said.
The suspect would often tell her son to “shut up” and made him sleep in a room with only a mattress, her mother said, according to the complaint. Blaylock and her boyfriend also allegedly used the $200 she received monthly in food stamps for themselves.
Paramedics transported the boy to a hospital where he was diagnosed with severe autism. He also had “extensive dental decay” due to neglect, doctors said. There was also “concern for possible sexual abuse.”
Police arrested Blaylock on Oct. 3 and took her to the Harris County Jail where she has since bonded out. Her next court date is scheduled for Nov. 18.
