Woman indicted on charges in connection with starved 6-year-old
Editor’s Note: This story includes details about child abuse and neglect. If you witness or have reasonable cause to believe there is an emergency child abuse or neglect situation, call 911 or the local law-enforcement agency. If you believe a child is being neglected or abused, but it is not an emergency, call the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services hotline, open 24 hours a day, at 1-800-252-5400. There is also a website, https://www.txabusehotline.org/Login/Default.aspx, to report child abuse or neglect.
A Wichita County grand jury recently handed down indictments against a woman suspected of starving and neglecting her 6-year-old son, court documents show.
Catherine Jarvey, 32, of Wichita Falls was indicted on one count of injury to a child younger than 14, causing serious harm, and one count of exploitation of a child for personal benefit, according to the indictment filed earlier this month.
In the exploitation charge, Jarvey is accused of illegally using the child's resources, failing to obtain medical care and adequate nutrition for him, according to the indictment filed Jan. 6.
She was being held Friday in the Wichita County Law Enforcement Center on $70,000 in total bonds, according to online jail records.
Injury to a child is a first-degree felony punishable by up to life in prison. Exploitation of a child is a third-degree felony carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Anyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
An investigation began after an exterminator visited Jarvey's room Sept. 21 at a motel in the 1200 block of Broad Street and saw what he thought was a skeleton, according to allegations in an affidavit for an arrest warrant served Oct. 14.
The exterminator realized he was looking at a child who was alive when the boy moved his head, according to allegations in the Wichita Falls police affidavit.
The child has since been treated, and a physician advised police that he weighed almost 18 pounds on Oct. 12 and was "improving daily," according to the affidavit.
A responding police investigator thought the child was possibly a toddler, but Jarvey said he was 6, according to allegations in the affidavit. The boy could not walk, stand, sit up or talk.
Police found expired formula for feeding through a tube in Jarvey's room and a storage unit, according to allegations. Her room also contained various items of food.
Jarvey told police she received $841 in monthly Social Security disability benefits for her son and that she also received $250 monthly in food stamps, according to allegations. The boy was also a Medicaid recipient.
In addition, Jarvey told police she received $841 in monthly disability benefits for her 10-year-old daughter, who was also a Medicaid recipient, according to allegations.
Weighing just over 15 pounds, the boy was taken to United Regional Health Care System on Sept. 21 for treatment for dehydration and malnutrition, according to allegations.
He was transferred to Cook Children's Medical Center on Sept. 22 in Fort Worth and diagnosed with birth defects and malnutrition, and a physician stated he showed signs of medical and physical neglect that brought him close to death, according to allegations.
When the child was last been seen by a doctor in 2019, he weighed 21 pounds, according to allegations.
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Trish Choate, enterprise watchdog reporter for the Times Record News, covers education, courts, breaking news and more. Contact Trish with news tips at tchoate@gannett.com. Read her recent work here. Her Twitter handle is @Trishapedia.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Woman indicted on abuse charges in connection with child's starvation
