DOUGLAS COUNTY, Ga. — A pair of Douglas County parents are accused of leaving their toddler in a backyard shed with no supervision.
The child wasn’t wearing clothing, and police say he didn’t have running water for days.
A neighbor told Channel 2’s Tyisha Fernandes that he believes he knows what sparked the investigation about two weeks ago.
When Fernandes got to the neighborhood on Thursday, she couldn’t find the shed.
“The structure is gone. It’s not there anymore,” neighbor Matthew Govoni said. “I know there was a huge fire with explosions.”
Fernandes confirmed that the fire department investigated a fire on Memorial Day weekend.
Govoni believes that’s what sparked the investigation into the parents leaving a 3-year-old boy in the shed.
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Police say the child’s father, Joseph Turner, and the mother, Sarah Pobert, caused “cruel/excessive mental and physical pain to the toddler” by keeping him in a dirty shed behind the house.
They said the shed had no running water, no electricity, no adults around, and they said the 3-year-old was dirty with no clothes on.
“With the lifestyle they live, I’m not surprised by any of that, really,” Govoni said.
Despite the living conditions, police are calling it criminally negligent.
Govoni said the child looked happy on the few occasions he saw him outside.
“I’m saddened for them and the child, but I mean, for the child, I hope they can get to a place where they can be helped,” Govoni said.
Both suspects are in their mid-30s, and the neighbor said they’ve lived in the home for more than a decade.
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