Background: Big Sandy Regional Detention Center in Paintsville, Ky. (Google Maps). Inset: Virginia Lynn Fernow (Big Sandy Regional Detention Center).
A Kentucky mom is in jail after police responded to a welfare check at her home and came upon a disgusting scene.
Virginia Lynn Fernow, 26, was charged with criminal abuse of a child and endangering the welfare of a minor after officers from the Louisa Police Department said she was keeping her two children, ages 2 and 4, in deplorable conditions. According to a police report obtained by local news outlet Mountain Top Media, officers were asked to conduct a welfare check at her home in Louisa, Kentucky, on Friday.
When they first arrived at the home, police reported that they could smell a foul odor from inside the house.
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Officers were greeted at the door by Fernow, who spoke with them on her front porch. When they inquired about her children, Fernow said that her 2-year-old daughter had burned her back on a heater. She claimed that she tried to treat the injury with diaper rash cream but did not take her to a doctor.
Police told Fernow that they would need to be allowed inside to make sure the children were okay. She agreed, but warned officers that there was dog feces on the floor. After making entry, officers noted that there was allegedly dog feces and garbage in several areas throughout the home, to the extent that it made some areas inaccessible.
When police finally found the children, they said both of them were in the bedroom without any clothes on and surrounded by flies and insects. Fernow allegedly said she had not cleaned the home for four to six months.
Fernow was arrested on Friday and charged with criminal abuse of a child and endangering a minor. She is being held at the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center on $5,000 cash bond. Her next court date is scheduled for Nov. 19.
Police did not release information about where the children were taken following Fernow’s arrest.
