A Texas mother has been charged with keeping her disabled daughter's body in her refrigerator for nearly five months until it was discovered by her other daughter, authorities said.
Amber Keyes, of southwest Houston, was charged with injury to a child on Monday, five months after the emaciated body of 9-year-old Ayahna Comb was found wrapped in a blanket in the crisper drawer of her refrigerator, according to court records obtained by the Houston Chronicle. The 35-year-old mother was booked into the Harris County jail on Tuesday.
Keyes told investigators she found Ayahna, who could not speak or move due to cerebral palsy, not breathing during the early morning hours of Jan. 29. She started panicking and unsuccessfully tried to revive her daughter. But instead of calling for help, she wrapped the body in a blanket and put her in the fridge.
For the next five months, Ayahna's 14-pound body remained in the crisper drawrer of her mother's refrigerator. The body was discovered on June 9 by the child's then 5-year-old sister and her two friends who were looking for a cheese stick to eat.
"By not providing the proper parental care or seeking medical and/or professional assistance for [Comb's] condition, the defendant caused injury to [Comb] by omission, which led to the death of [Comb] due to neglect," the charging documents read.
Investigators said it took this long for the mother to be charged because medical officials needed time to determine Ayahna's cause of death, which took longer because she was a child.
A medical examiner ruled that she died from malnutrition and dehydration, the newspaper reported. Keyes told investigators she had not taken Ayahna to the doctor for two years before she died because they had moved a lot.
The mother also told police Ayahna was eating less and less before her death, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Keyes, ordered held on $50,000 bail, has one other child who was taken away by child services in 2002 after reports surfaced that a man she was seeing was abusing the now 13-year-old.
