Authorities in Kentucky arrested a disabled man’s parents on suspicion of severe neglect resulting in his death at the age of 20.
As WKYT reported, Albert and Patsy Christy were arrested on Monday and are expected to face murder charges following a months-long investigation into Logan Christy’s death.
A medical examiner’s report helped secure the couple’s arrest, ruling the death a homicide with a conclusion he died in December as a result of neglect — specifically caused by malnutrition, dehydration and pneumonia.
According to Fox News, an autopsy showed Logan Christy had no food in his stomach despite his mother’s claims that she fed him just minutes before she called authorities to report the emergency.
He reportedly weighed only 61 pounds at the time of his death and had been living in what authorities described as filthy conditions.
Records indicate 61-year-old Albert and 65-year-old Patsy Christy ended health care for their son after his 18th birthday, when they stopped receiving government assistance on his behalf.
Though Clark County Sheriff Berl Perdue described the circumstances surrounding this death as among the worst he has ever encountered, the suspects’ two children who also lived in the Winchester home insisted their parents would not starve anyone to death.
“Something that you rarely see, but once you do you don’t forget,” the sheriff said.
Samantha Gilbert, who lives in the house next door, said she always considered the family to be good neighbors.
“You can know somebody your whole life and really don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors,” she said.
The suspects were arrested and booked into the Clark County jail. Bond was set in both cases at $1 million.
[Featured image: Albert and Patsy Christy/Clark County Detention Center]