JACKSON COUNTY, W.Va. — A 5-year-old child was taken to a Charleston hospital on Tuesday after he was found locked in the trunk of a car.
According to Jackson County Sheriff Ross Mellinger, the car was parked in a mobile home park in the Cottageville area. Someone interested in buying the car found the child while inspecting the vehicle.
The incident happened as high air temperatures across West Virginia were in the 90s.
“It’s about as bad as a situation, about as bad a set of conditions that you could expect and still be alive,” Mellinger said. “The boy was still in fact alive, but clinging onto life with every little last thread that he had.”
The child was taken via helicopter to Charleston Area Medical Center’s Women and Children’s Hospital.
Authorities removed three other children from the home whose ages ranged from 1 to 5. The parents, 24-year-old Nantail Roberts and 22-year-old Cory Roberts, face child neglect resulting in serious bodily injury and child neglect creating risk of substantial bodily injury.
“The living conditions of the residence itself was a problem,” Mellinger added. “Outside of today’s emergency incident, the living conditions were so deplorable and such that they alone would merit a felony charge. Some of the worst living conditions I have seen in my 25 years here at the sheriff’s office.”
Mellinger said it is unclear how the child got into the vehicle.