An Alabama couple who police said didn’t believe in doctors could face life in prison if convicted of aggravated child abuse in the starvation death of their 3-year-old boy.
News outlets report Ashley Elizabeth Catron and Frederick Anthony Frink were denied bond on Aug. 22. Huntsville officers testified that the couple’s boys were severely malnourished. Prosecutor Tim Douthit said Hendrix Frink died of starvation weighing just 13 pounds. He told the court his 4-year-old brother survived, barely, weighing 15 pounds.
CHILD ABUSE: Frederick Antony Frink and Ashley Elizabeth Catron face 10 years to life if they’re convicted of the charges against them. https://t.co/30VjEgrjGc
— WHNT (@whnt) July 31, 2019
Investigator Julian Johnson says the home smelled of urine and the boys’ cribs were soiled with blood and feces. Police say they told authorities they tried to nourish the children with PediaSure.
The couple has filed for bankruptcy over tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills.
Mother of Starved Teen Convicted of Murder
In a similar story, the mother of a Virginia boy who died from severe starvation and neglect has pleaded no contest to second-degree murder.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports 37-year-old Amy FaJohn entered her plea in court on July 17. Prosecutors dropped charges of first-degree murder and felony child neglect.
Hopewell mother convicted of murder in starvation death of son, 13, who weighed 24 pounds when he died. https://t.co/f7Zz464MYM
— Times-Dispatch (@RTDNEWS) July 18, 2019
A coroner said that when 13-year-old Jalen Goldsborough was found dead last year, he had sores, sunken skin and weighed just 24 pounds. Prosecutors say Jalen Goldsborough was disabled after his father physically abused him when he was an infant. In 2005, Charles Byron Goldsborough II was convicted of aggravated malicious wounding for shaking Jalen Goldsborough so violently it caused blindness and brain injuries.
FaJohn lived with her boyfriend, Anthony Saunders. He pleaded guilty to felony child neglect on July 17.
