Charges and court status
Jacob Aaron Neal, 31, and Elizabeth Lynn Crow, 27, were arrested in Frankfort on Sept. 17 and charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, according to court-record-based reporting by WTHR and FOX59. Neal is the boy’s father, and Crow is his stepmother.
Both defendants entered not-guilty pleas at an initial hearing. Crow’s bond was revoked because she was already free on bond in another pending child-neglect case; Neal’s bond was set at $40,000, according to FOX59’s account of the hearing. The allegations have not been adjudicated.
What investigators allege
The investigation began Aug. 26 after IU Health Frankfort Hospital reported suspected abuse and neglect to police, according to WRTV. Investigators allege that food was withheld from the boy as discipline and that he was punished after being caught eating. Text messages recovered from the defendants’ phones were cited by police and prosecutors as evidence that the practice was intentional; the messages also discussed the child’s repeated requests for food and concern that neighbors might contact police, WTHR reported.
Statewide context
Indiana’s available statewide figures provide a limited context because they concern child fatalities, not all neglect investigations or the Frankfort case. According to the Indiana Department of Child Services’ 2023 annual report, the agency investigated 261 fatalities involving suspected abuse or neglect, or a sudden, unexpected or unexplained death of a child under age 3. Of the fatalities covered by the report, 20 were attributed to abuse and 36 to neglect.
Police also allege that the boy regularly cared for three younger children in the household. The other children were removed by the Indiana Department of Child Services and were reported to be in good health, according to WRTV and WTHR.
Medical findings and child-welfare response
Court records cited by WTHR and FOX59 state that the 9-year-old weighed 51 pounds when he was taken to the hospital. The records describe malnutrition, severe bruising, anemia, a lung infection and spinal compression fractures, among other medical conditions. Doctors reportedly found that those injuries did not fit the explanation investigators say Neal gave—that a bookshelf in a food pantry had fallen on the boy.
The child was transferred to an Indianapolis hospital in critical condition and was later described by police as stable, according to WRTV. The Department of Child Services was contacted after the hospital report.
Potential penalty
The defendants face Level 3 felony charges of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury. Under Indiana Code § 35-50-2-5, a Level 3 felony carries a sentence of three to 16 years in prison, with a nine-year advisory sentence, and a possible fine of up to $10,000, according to the cited Indiana sentencing provision.
