Baby girl was found dead in overheated, dirty Columbus mobile home, police say
A Columbus police detective gave shocking details Monday of the conditions in which authorities found a 22-month-old girl dead from dehydration, malnutrition and hyperthermia.
“Very hot, very dirty, a lot of roaches ... smelled very bad, and the heat of course, accentuated that,” Cpl. Jeff Jones said of the St. Marys Road mobile home where officers found Maryanne Smith dead in a bedroom on Feb. 25.
The temperatures in that room measured 95 degrees at the level of the bed, 100 degrees at head level, and 105 degrees at the ceiling, he said. The temperature outside was around 78 degrees, he said.
Jones testified Monday in a Columbus Recorder’s Court hearing for the child’s mother, Aundrea Colleen Nelson, 20, and her brother Jonathan Edward Nelson, 23. They both face charges of felony murder and second-degree child cruelty in the baby’s death.
The brother waived his preliminary hearing, so Jones testified in the mother’s case.
The detective said the mother had left the baby and the girl’s 3-year-old brother in their uncle’s care while visiting friends out of town. She had checked on them by using her boyfriend’s phone to connect with Jonathan Nelson through FaceTime, an iPhone video chat feature. She last checked in the night before the child died, Jones said.
The detective said Jonathan Nelson told police he’d been caring for the two children since Feb. 21, though he had been asked to watch them only overnight. The mother called on Feb. 22 and told him to continue babysitting for the rest of that week, he told officers.
Aundrea Nelson told police she had always planned to be gone a week, and her brother knew that.
According to Jonathan Nelson’s statements to investigators, he put the children to bed around 4 a.m. Feb. 25, and awoke around 8 a.m. to feed them. “That was the last he saw of the children until about 4:30 (p.m.),” Jones said.
At 4:30 p.m., the 3-year-old boy came out of the bedroom, to be fed again, and that’s when the uncle found the baby dead, he said. He called 911 from the 3536 St. Marys Road trailer park at 4:43 p.m., Jones said.
Asked to describe the baby’s condition, the officer said: “She only had a diaper on, a urine-soaked diaper. Her eyes were sunken back in her head, from malnutrition. Dry lips.”
The little boy was “very dirty also,” but apparently in acceptable health, the detective said.
Police got the autopsy results on April 27, revealing the child’s alleged neglect from lack of sustenance and excessive heat, and ruled the death a homicide. The medical examiner said that level of neglect could not have occurred in just four days, implicating the mother, Jones testified.
The Nelsons were arrested Friday, each booked into the Muscogee County Jail around 10:45 a.m.
Judge Julius Hunter asked if the mobile home’s air conditioner was working. Jones said Jonathan Nelson told police it was not, but a first responder had turned on the air-conditioning in one bedroom after authorities arrived.
Judge Julius Hunter found probable cause to send the cases to Muscogee Superior Court. Each defendant is being held without bond.
At the request of their attorneys, Alfonza Whitaker for the brother and public defender Robin King for the sister, Hunter also ordered a psychological evaluation for each.
This story was originally published May 10, 2021 at 12:23 PM.