The Indiana man accused of severely neglecting a 15-year-old girl in Indiana after she was taken to the hospital this week weighing just 35 pounds, was charged Friday. Police call the case one of the “worst cases of neglect” they’ve ever seen.
Steve Sells, 58, faces several felony counts of neglect, confinement and battery, NBC News reported.
He reportedly requested a public defender during a hearing in Madison County court, and told the judge his parents would pay his $100,000 cash bond. He was ordered not to have any contact with his granddaughter.
The girl was taken to an Indiana hospital Monday. Police said she was so severely malnourished that “her bones were protruding more than her flesh,” according to an affidavit. There were also “feces on her feet.” She was listed in critical condition.
"The best way I can explain her physical condition would be a Holocaust victim," Anderson Police Det. Joel Sandefur told NBC affiliate WTHR.
The girls’ guardian, 58-year-old Steve Sells, was arrested Monday and faces a preliminary charge of child neglect.
Officers who checked the home where the girl lived, in Anderson, northeast of Indianapolis, said they found an upstairs room with clasp lock at the top of the door. Inside was a mattress, a space heater, blankets a bucket and a bowl of oatmeal. Police also found blood.
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Police said a 4-year-old child in the home told officers the girl was locked in the room and “would stick her fingers out around the door trying to get out,” according to the affidavit.
Sells, who weighs between 200 and 225 pounds, told officer he locked his daughter in there to protect himself because she was strong and threatened him with a knife. He told officials the girl has a chromosome disorder that keeps her from gaining weight.
"With a 15-year-old girl weighing less than 40 pounds, that's not a very plausible explanation. That's something we're not buying as a police department," said Sandefur.
Sells said the girl fell and her condition grew worse over the last few days.
Sells’ wife, 54-year-old Joetta Sue Sells, was also being questioned in the case.
