Alexandra Ebey and Kenneth Trout face child abuse claims

A Florida mother who was previously charged with child neglect was recently lifted due to the severity of the abuse.

Alexandra Ebey, 37, was initially charged with child neglect with great bodily harm in late December for allegedly locking his 5-year-old daughter in a closet for 25 days.

According to an arrest report from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office obtained by local CBS and Fox affiliate WJAX, the girl was “weak and emaciated,” with open wounds all over her body. Sheriff’s representatives initially visited the home earlier that month, they said, after someone called concerned about not seeing the child for a while and feared he might dead.

Sheriff’s representatives also said the girl had “falling off parts of her body” when she was removed from her home late last year.

According to the sheriff’s office, Ebey denied the abuse was the cause of her daughter’s troubles, and said she had hurt herself while playing.

The 5-year-old girl was taken to the nearby Wolfson Children’s Hospital to be treated for malnutrition. There, the girl allegedly told law enforcement that she was “handcuffed and tied” inside a closet, where she was allegedly forced to use a bucket as a toilet, according to the police report.

Two days later, her mother’s boyfriend was also arrested.

On December 23, 2021, Kenneth Trout, 38, was charged with one count of child neglect and two counts of aggravated child abuse, resisting arrest, and two drug-related counts, according to arrest records.

Under Trout .’s arrest warrant Collected by local NBC and ABC affiliate WTLV-WJXXThe girl’s siblings said she was severely punished when, for example, she ate an entire jar of peanut butter.

An unnamed neighbor spoke to the broadcaster and said her understanding of the alleged abuse prompted several phone calls, including the one that ultimately resulted in the girl’s death. rescued.

That neighbor said in an interview. “Feeling helpless with them as if I couldn’t do anything for them. No matter how many calls she made, there was no evidence until they discovered she was malnourished and it was almost too late. I can never imagine, never. I tried imagining, and I could never imagine. We want to see the girl because no one has seen her yet and that’s the bottom line. When they brought her out in the blanket, they said she was using the bathroom or whatever. I saw her, she was in a blanket and she could barely even walk. “

Neighbor also spoke with WJAX.

“You can see the ribs, you can see the malnutrition, the patches on your hair, the bites all over your body,” she said of the girl and her siblings. “Honestly, it all changes with them. All I can do is just, report it. Hurt. Definitely very sad. Overwhelmed. ”

The children have since been placed, along with their grandparents. The girl was discharged from the hospital last Friday.

“It’s a game changer when you see them fully clothed, they’re clean, they’re happy, they’re smiling and they’re smiling,” The long-worried neighbor told the TV station over the weekend. “They’re still scared but at least they’re smiling at the end of the day.”

[image via Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office]

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