A two-year-old boy was found dead by police after his parents had allegedly neglected him so much he was forced to eat dirty nappies and paint chippings to curb hunger pains
A tragic toddler suffered unimaginable cruelty in the last days of his life, police say.
Erik Reichard’s lifeless body was found on his parents living room floor by investigators as they desperately attempted CPR on the two-year-old. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Parents Trevor Reichard-Hayes, 39, and Katherine Carter, 31, had brought the boy downstairs after he appeared blue and wasn’t breathing. The father then called the police who arrived to find a ‘house of horrors’ the young boy had been living in.
A detective at the scene noticed there were “poor living conditions that included feces on the floor in the two children’s rooms as well as an abundance of drywall and paint chips, dirt, and pieces of diapers [lying] everywhere as well as insects/bugs in the home,” according to court documents seen by PEOPLE magazine.
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The parents, from Indiana, US, reportedly told the police the last time they saw Erik alive was around 11pm the night before. The dectetive on the scene could tell “based on my training and experience that the child had been deceased for several hours” and that the child was “blue and pale”.
Police also noted that the helpless tot was “extremely skinny” and covered in over 40 sores or bug bites. Weighing just six kilograms, the mother told police her son had been eating his nappies. Detectives drew the conclusion the little boy was doing this “due to hunger”.
His cause of death was found to be severe dehydration and severe malnourishment as a result of neglect.
An autopsy showed that Erik’s colon contained “foreign material with a gel-like substance and small white pieces”. The report stated that “these findings were consistent with the gel found in the diapers worn by [Erik] as well as the material of the diaper itself. Some of the white material removed from the colon was also consistent with the drywall, paint chips, or spackling.”
After an extensive search of the home, police had allegedly found feces, torn nappies and pieces of drywall or spackling in one of the children’s upstairs bedrooms.
They then also found a small child’s bed in another room, scattered with ripped up nappies, drywall debris and a potty full of faeces and urine that officers noted “hadn’t been cleaned in days or perhaps weeks”.
Away from the horrors inside the child’s room, police noted that the couples bedroom had “nice bedding”, the bed was made, the room was clean and there was no clutter unlike the rest of the house.
The child’s parents were arrested on 3 April on charges of murder, neglect of a dependent resulting in death, neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury and neglect of a dependent. Carter, the mother, is due in court on 14 May and Reichard-Hayes is expected to appear in court on 28 May.
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