From The Trussville Tribune staff reports
JAY, Okla. (CNN) — An Oklahoma mother faces child neglect charges after authorities said she starved her two young children and made them eat dog feces.
Mary Elizabeth Moore, 34, remains in custody on a $100,000 bond. She faces two counts of felony child neglect after her children, ages three and five, were rushed to the hospital, weighing just 18 and 26 pounds, respectively.
According to court documents, the children were so malnourished that hospital staff placed them on a “special diet” and applied “nasal feeding tubes.”
“This is definitely an extreme case of child neglect, one of the worst that I’ve seen,” said Delaware County Undersheriff Tracy Shaw.
Shaw said the five-year-old victim told investigators with the Department of Human Services that she was allegedly being fed dog feces.
The affidavit stated the child “had pinworms in her stool as well” and indicated she “gets spanked for hitting and laughing.”
“If somebody had not reported this, the hospital records and the child abuse expert that examined them in Tulsa stated that they would probably be dead,” Shaw said.
Moore was arrested at her home, which is located in a secluded and rural area about five miles from the town of Jay, Oklahoma. Shaw said she was in denial when she was first brought in for questioning.
According to court documents, she claimed she did not want the kids hospitalized at the time because she had a meeting with DHS the next day.
“DHS has had many, many complaints on her in the past for child neglect, malnourishment-type issues,” Shaw said.
However, Shaw said this was the first case that had been brought to the attention of the sheriff’s office.
“As the investigator got around to the actual allegations, she became very upset and walked out of the interview,” Shaw said.
Investigators also said Moore claimed she “had been dealing with DHS” since her daughter was one year old but “did not have an issue with DHS at all until I got with my husband.”
Copyright 2019 KFOR, Tribune, Delaware County Sheriff’s Office via CNN. All rights reserved.