CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Kanawha County magistrate denied Wednesday to lower the bond of a woman who allegedly kept her children in poor conditions.
Kristal Lynn Richard, 33, requested a decrease of the $10,000 bond in connection with two counts of child neglect creating risk of injury.
Richard was arrested May 8 after West Virginia State Police visited her Shrewsbury home, to which they said they discovered two young children living in poor conditions.
According to Trooper Nick Manolakos, a 2-year-old male child was found in a plywood enclosure with a tarped floor.
“There was fecal matter surrounding him and a plate of food on the floor,” Manolakos said. “It looked more like a kennel for an animal than a child’s room.”
Troopers also found a 5-year-old male child in a room with a locked half-door, with the top half covered with a baby gate.
“He was naked, pacing back and forth and talking to himself,” Manolakos said of the juvenile.
The children were later placed in custody of family members.
The case will next go before a grand jury after Richard waived her preliminary hearing.