Fla parents starve 4-year-old twins until one looked like a skeleton and beat son, 6, with belt

Two Florida parents have been charged with child abuse after they starved their four-year-old twins and beat their son, 6, police say.

Kimberly Haygood, 27, and Anthony Jones’ twin boy was found so underfed he weighed the same as an 11-month-old baby and ‘looked like a skeleton.’

Detective Megan Buck said he was shocked by the poor state of the young child who ‘took my breath away.

‘His body was skin and bones,’ he added.’

Haygood and Jones, 30, are accused of abusing their six-year-old son and four-year-old twins, a girl and a boy, at their home in Sarasota, Florida.

All three children were ‘extremely malnourished and dehydrated’ according to police who also found scars on the two boys that were consistent with being beaten with a belt.

The six-year-old, who had multiple ‘severe’ scars, told police that when the twins soiled themselves, their father would hit them too.

Sarasota Police were alerted to the alleged abuse by the Department of Children and Families (DCF) after a severely underweight child was brought into the All Children’s Hospital in St Petersburg.

Haygood explained that she had brought her son in after a family member who lives close by raised concerns about him being ‘so skinny’, said Detective Buck.

She claimed that she fed her child Cheetos and milk as he had an aversion to food.

However a skeletal survey found that the boy’s intestines were completely empty. The doctor carrying out the health check told police that even milk would leave traces of food and residue and that they believed the four-year-old had only been given water.

The boy was so malnourished he was developmentally delayed and was not able to speak. He also had no hair and a rash from a lack of nutrients.

His twin sister, who weighed just two pounds more, was also found to be starved.

Haygood and Jones were each charged with two counts of aggravated child abuse and two counts of child neglect with great bodily harm. Haygood was charged with an additional count of child neglect and Jones with an additional count of child abuse.

Their children have since been taken into care by the state.

The mother-of-three is now being held on a $50,000 bond and must not contact Jones nor the children. Jones is being held on a $60,000 bond and must not contact his children nor any other minors.

Police said additional charges for the pair were pending.

Source: The DailyMail