JAY, Okla. (KFOR) – Delaware County Undersheriff Tracy Shaw has seen his fair share of unthinkable cases, but nothing like this.
“This is definitely an extreme case of child neglect. One of the worst that I’ve seen,” Undersheriff Shaw says.
Two children, ages three and five years old rushed to the hospital, the older child, weighing just 26 pounds.
Her younger brother weighed 18 pounds.
Authorities say they were living in a home along a rural and secluded area about five miles from the town of Jay.
“This is beyond anything I could ever even think about because here, it seems everybody kind of knows each other,” neighbor Jefferson Miles says.
According to court documents, the children were so malnourished, hospital staff placed them on a “special diet and applied “nasal feeding tubes.”
“While DHS was at the hospital and speaking with one of the children, the child disclosed that she was allegedly being fed dog feces,” Undersheriff Shaw says.
The children’s mother, Mary Elizabeth Moore, denied all of that when questioned by investigators.
She now faces two counts of child neglect.
“DHS has had many, many complaints on her in the past for child neglect, malnourishment type issues,” Undersheriff Shaw says.
But Shaw says this was the first case brought to their attention and possibly just in time.
“If somebody had not reported this, the hospital records and the child abuse expert that examined them in Tulsa stated that they would probably be dead,” Undersheriff Shaw says.
The mother is being held on a $100,000 bond.
