The parents of a 5-year-old boy who was found unconscious and locked in the trunk of a car that was being shown to a potential buyer have been arrested. Nantail Roberts, 24, and Cory Roberts, 22, from Jackson County, West Virginia, were charged with one count of child neglect creating injury and three counts of child neglect risking injury, ABC 3340 reports.
West Virginia Regional Jail
- The car the boy was found in didn’t belong to his parents. According to authorities, while the car was parked outside the Roberts’ mobiles home in Cottageville, it belonged to a neighbor. According to the parents, they had no idea the boy had gone missing and gotten into the trunk.
- Had a buyer not come to look at the vehicle, the boy would have died. The weather was around 90 degrees outside, so it’s no wonder the boy was unconscious when he was found. Authorities say he was in “grave” condition and was immediately flown to the hospital. “The boy was still, in fact, alive, but clinging onto life with every little last thread that he had,” said Jackson County Sheriff Ross Mellinger.
- Somehow, the parents never even noticed their son was gone. Mellinger revealed that the parents claimed they never knew the boy was missing as they hadn’t seen him since they went to bed the night before. Therefore, they have no idea how their son got into the trunk or how long they’d been there. Given that he was only five years old, it’s hard to fathom how they weren’t bothered about not seeing their son since the previous night.
- The couple’s other three children were living in terrible conditions. Investigators inspected the home and found a 3-year-old girl, a 2-year-old boy, and a 9-month-old baby living in horrendous conditions. WSAZ reports that the property smelled like urine and feces. “A multitude of trash, rotten food, flies, maggots, dirty diapers, as well as clutter to the point that it restricted any movement within the home,” police said. The children were later removed from the home.
