Insets, left to right: Kira Askea and Jason Askea. Background: Little Tallapoosa Park in Carroll County, Georgia (WAGA).
A mother and father in Georgia are accused of abandoning their three children — all under the age of 5 — at a campsite, leaving them to fend for themselves and hungry after they hadn”t eaten in days.
Jason Askea, 46, and Kira Askea, 41, each face a count of cruelty to children with excessive physical or mental pain. According to arrest affidavits obtained by Law&Crime, the suspects cut off their 2-year-old son with Down syndrome from prescribed oxygen support that was “essential for his brain development” and also removed a feeding tube that was “essential for his calorie intake.”
In addition, the boy had a chronic infectious disease affecting his teeth, the complaint states.
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Local Fox affiliate WAGA reports the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office responded on Sept. 16 to Little Tallapoosa Park in Carrollton, which is some 45 miles west of Atlanta, for a report of the abandoned children in a tent. A camper called cops after seeing the kids, ages 2, 4 and 5, alone. The kids reportedly told the caller they were hungry and had not eaten in two days.
The kids also appeared to be covered in feces. Like the boy with Down syndrome, the other two kids also had bad dental hygiene, cops concluded.
Eventually, the parents returned to the campsite and cops took them to jail where they remain without bond. They reportedly told cops they had recently lost their home and had been living with the kids in a tent in the 330-acre park.
The children are now in the custody of the Department of Family and Children Services.
