2 arrested after police find 2 malnourished children locked in room
06/30/2023 2:13 pm PDT
LEXINGTON, N.C. (TCD) -- Police arrested a mother and her acquaintance this week on suspicion of abusing and neglecting two young children and multiple dogs.
According to a news release from the Lexington Police Department, on Monday, June 26, officers conducted a welfare check at a home on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, where they found two girls, ages 9 and 5, who they allege were being abused and neglected. Police said the girls were "locked in a room, malnourished, and physically abused."
At the scene, officers also reportedly found malnourished and neglected dogs and drug paraphernalia.
Upon further investigation, police arrested the girls' mother, 31-year-old Julia Owens, and 42-year-old Josh Hoover, her "male acquaintance" who lived in the home.
Hoover and Owens were booked into the Davidson County Detention Center on two counts each of felony child abuse/neglect resulting in serious physical injury, felony cruelty to animals, and possession of drug paraphernalia. They remain held on $75,000 bond and are scheduled to appear in court July 31.
The investigation is ongoing, and additional charges are possible.
According to a press release from the Davidson County Sheriff's Office, Owens was previously arrested on two counts of misdemeanor child abuse in April 2022. At the time, detectives reportedly responded to her home on Klopman Mill Road in Denton and "found conditions that created substantial risk of physical injury to the minor children."
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