PUTNAM COUNTY, Fla. — Four adults in Putnam County are behind bars facing child neglect charges after the sheriff’s office discovered their “house of horrors.”
READ: Putnam County family faces child neglect charges after sheriff’s office discovers ‘house of horrors’
It started after the Department of Children and Families reported the state of 26-year-old Jodie Cannon and 30-year-old Jordan Wilson’s six-week-old infant.
A week later, the sheriff’s office conducted a search of Cannon’s home in Florahome, where they discovered the conditions three additional children were living in.
The sheriff’s office says on the walls were feces and black mold, and the ground was covered in uneaten food and cockroaches.
Now the other adults in the home — Wilson, father of the infant and two of the children in the home, and Cannon’s mother and stepfather, 50-year-old Melissa Keal and 52-year-old John Keal — are all being charged with child neglect.
All four children have been taken into DCF custody.
“Many neighbors have called Child Protective Services because of the conditions of the house and the property,” said Kaitlin Zava, who’s lived down the street from the family for four years. “The property smells very strongly of like animal feces and urine; when you walk by the house, you can literally smell the smell coming from the house, so I can’t imagine what it’s like inside.”
Zava says during the time she’s lived near the family, she’s seen them leave several dogs outside, locked up without food or water for days on end.
“We have called animal protective services several times in Putnam County, trying to get somebody to come out to take care of the dogs that have been tied up outside, without food, without water,” Zava said. “There are a few smaller dogs that kind of run up and down the road, and they’re just matted and filthy and not cared for.”
She also says several neighbors, herself included, have tried to make DCF aware of the home’s condition.
“I feel like a lot of people around here have been blaming what’s happening on mental illness, and I do understand that to a degree, but there comes a point where we need to realize that some people are just evil people and shouldn’t be allowed to have children,” Zava said. “And it’s a shame that DCF would continue to allow these children to go back to a home where they know they’re abused and neglected.”
Zava says she wants all parties to be held responsible.
“First on Putnam County Animal Services for never returning phone calls, not coming out, not doing anything about these animals, and then for Child Protective Services, as a previous foster and adoptive mom, they had a duty to protect these children and not keep giving them back,” Zava said. “At what point do we hold them accountable and make them answer for the things that have happened here?”
Action News Jax has reached out to DCF for more information on this case and is waiting for a response back. We also reached out to Putnam Animal Control, who said they will email us with more information after looking into the case.
Cannon is being charged with aggravated child neglect with great bodily harm and child neglect. She’s being held at the Putnam County Jail on a $35,000 bond.
Wilson, Melissa and John Keal are being charged with child neglect, but the sheriff’s office expects more charges to come. Melissa and John Keal are being held on a $3,000 bond, while Wilson is being held on a $2,500 bond.
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