Parents charged with manslaughter after toddler dies from eating diapers, drywall

An Indiana couple was arrested after their malnourished baby died in poor living conditions, with investigators saying the child had eaten pieces of diapers and drywall before his death and that the parents waited nearly 14 hours after they last saw him alive to call 911, according to police and court records.

Trevor Reichard-Hayes, 39, and Katherine Carter, 31, face charges of manslaughter and criminal negligence in connection with the death of Erik Reichard, 2, the Tell City Police Department said in a press release.

Police found the child dead around 1:20 pm on March 31 after Reichard-Hayes called 911 to report that his wife had found their son not breathing. The couple is said to have told the police that they last saw their son alive around 11 pm the night before.

Responding officers and medics who arrived a short time later performed CPR on the 2-year-old, but the child was pronounced dead at the scene.

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“I could tell based on my training and experience that the child had been dead for several hours. The child was blue and pale,” the investigator wrote in a probable cause affidavit filed against his parents, according to PEOPLE.

The boy was “extremely emaciated” and covered in numerous sores or bug bites, the coroner said. Erik also weighed just 15 pounds, about half the weight a child his age should weigh.

Carter told police that Erik was eating his diapers, and the investigator “suspected that the child was eating his diapers due to hunger,” the affidavit reads.

Investigators found the home, which houses two other children, to be in bad shape. Other children were removed from the home, including one who was hospitalized for severe malnutrition and dehydration.

The couple waited more than 14 hours to report that their baby was unresponsive. (Tell the City Police Department)

The detective said he saw “deplorable living conditions including sewage on the floor of the two children’s bedrooms and piles of wallboard and paint, dirt and bits of diapers. [lying] everywhere and insects/bugs at home.”

In one room, officials found a toddler’s bed, pieces of diapers and debris on the walls and floor and a training toilet filled with feces and urine that “appeared … not to have been cleaned in days or possibly weeks,” according to the affidavit.

But despite the children’s bedrooms being in poor condition, the parents lived in a clean and well-kept room.

The affidavit states that the double bedroom “has good beds, the bed is made, there is no excessive clutter, and it is clean, unlike the rest of the house.”

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The detective said the child was “extremely thin” and covered in numerous sores or bug bites. (Tell the City Police Department)

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An autopsy showed that the boy’s colon contained “a foreign material with a gel-like substance and small white particles. These findings were consistent with the gel found in disposable diapers [Erik] and the diaper material itself. Some of the white material removed from the colon was also associated with drywall, paint chips, or spackling,” according to PEOPLE.

Erik’s cause of death was determined to be malnutrition and dehydration from neglect, according to the affidavit.