TIPTON, Ind. -- A Tipton couple is accused of severely starving a 5-year-old child in their custody and locking him in his room for extended periods of time as punishment.
Johnathan Parsley, 28, and AshLeigh Peach, 30, were taken into custody Thursday afternoon at their home in the 100 block of Fourth Street.
The investigation began when an anonymous caller contacted the Tipton Police Department on June 5 to report that a young child was being starved as punishment.
The Department of Child Services and the Tipton Police Department removed the 5-year-old victim from the home on June 6. The child was taken to the hospital to be treated for severe malnutrition. He weighed only 32 pounds at the time he was admitted and was in the 1.9 percentile for weight of children his age, according to police.
The child stayed in the hospital for eight days until doctors were sure he would make a full recovery.
Six other children living in the home, ages 4-9, were removed at a later date, according to the Tipton Police Department. None of those children were treated for abuse.
On June 7, officers with the Tipton Police Department along with Indiana State Police and the Tipton County Sheriff's Department served a search warrant on the home the child was taken from and learned that the seven children living in the home had been sharing two bedrooms. One of those bedrooms was equipped with an audible door alarm that police learned was used to keep the 5-year-old victim confined to his room. They also found surveillance equipment that they determined was used to watch for the child attempting to sneak food from the kitchen.
Parsley and Peach are both charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury.
The case remains under investigation by the Tipton Police Department and Indiana State Police.
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