Mother, husband face child abuse charges after injured girl found wandering in Las Vegas parking lot
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A mother and her husband are facing felony counts of child abuse for allegedly hitting, smacking, burning, and withholding food from the woman’s 13-year-old daughter who was found wandering around in a grocery store parking lot and told police she did not like living at home.
According to the arrest report, a person leaving The Bar at Trails Village on the evening of Sept. 16 noticed the girl in the Albertson’s parking lot and saw she had burns on her hand and body, and appeared to be malnourished and there were no parents in sight. That person called 911.
Following an investigation, the girl’s mother Kacey Lilly, and stepfather, Edward Lilly, were arrested on Oct. 25. Both face three counts of child abuse/neglect and two counts of child abuse/neglect with substantial bodily harm.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan police officer who responded to the scene also noticed visible injuries on the child and asked her about them. The arrest report stated, that the girl told the officer “She ran away from home because she was tired of getting punished.” She said the punishment began after her biological father passed away several years ago and continued on a regular basis for “doing the wrong thing” or “staring” which would cause her mother and stepfather to slap her in the face. She told the officer she was homeschooled and had no friends.
Child Protection Services was called to the scene and Kacey Lilly also showed up and told police her daughter ran away a few hours earlier in the evening, the report said.
Kacey Lilly told police her daughter “Likes to steal food and eat out of the trash can” even though she is provided food at home but she could not explain why her daughter was so thin. the report said.
According to a medical exam conducted on the girl, she weighed 78 pounds and had finger marks on both arms, a bruise on the back of the right arm, loop marks on the back, buttocks, and backs of both legs, burns on both hands, cuts inside her mouth on both sides and a bruise on her left shin, documents said.
The girl told the doctor that the burns she suffered, including the one on her hand, were done by her mother, according to the report.
Documents said Kacey Lilly did admit to the officer she slapped her daughter for stealing food, eating out of the trash, and staring at her husband. She “stated it bothered her to have another woman staring at her man; it made her want to attack.”
The girl’s stepfather Edward Lilly denied to police that he physically disciplined the girl.
The couple is scheduled for their preliminary hearing in Las Vegas Justice Court on Feb. 13, 2024. Both are currently out of jail but can not have contact with the girl. She was removed from the home by Child Protection Services.
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