GREENACRES, Fla. — The parents found living in a car with five malnourished children at Walmart parking lot are not the monsters some people might think, according to directors of a resource center that aided the family.
Rikki Hart and Donell Barron remain in the Palm Beach County Jail in lieu of $1,000 bail and are facing five counts of child neglect. A deputy found the family inside a Toyota during a routine patrol Saturday morning at the Walmart at Forest Hill Boulevard just east of Jog Road.
Two of the children were diagnosed as “severely malnourished,” including a 14-year-old boy who weighed only 50 pounds when he was found. The children are now in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Timothy and Lorraine Motlow, who run the Helping Hands assistance program at 2930 Jog Road, provided the family with food, clothing and toys for nearly seven hours Saturday while Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies sorted out the situation at a church next to the resource center.
The Motlows said the children’s parents were “distraught” and that Barron kept asking, “How did it get this far?”
Barron told deputies the family had been living in the car for about two months after they were evicted from their Port St. Lucie home in May. The couple told the Motlows that Hart had a miscarriage this year while 8 1/2 months pregnant and they “have not recovered from that.”
“They are loving parents,” Timothy Motlow said of Hart and Barron, both 34. “They were doing all they can. The kids were happy and very loving with their parents. Things just snowballed for them.”
Motlow said Hart and Barron did not realize the extent of their children’s poor health. Barron told deputies the children — ages 14, 8, 6, 5 and 4 — ate only vegetables and bread once a day.
Lorraine Motlow said she was told by fire rescue workers that the 14-year-old boy would have died if he had remained in the car much longer.
“We didn’t realize he was 14 because he was so small and tiny,” Lorraine Motlow said.
The Motlow praised the work of deputies, saying the children were allowed to remain with their parents until they were taken to Palms West Hospital in Loxahatchee for evaluation. Hart and Barron remained behind and were arrested after the children departed.
Barron made several bizarre comments, according to an arrest report. He is a “world citizen” with a given name as well as a “corporate name,” he told deputies.
A blog compiled by the couple includes an “amendment to the State of Pennsylvania vital statistics” in which they claim to be members of the nation of Yammasee Imazighan. Barron told deputies that he is a Native American and “is not property of the U.S. or any corporation.”
Robin Johnson, Hart’s mother, said her daughter was a good mother and added she and Hart’s father “were working diligently to make sure the children are safe.” Johnson declined further comment.
“When you’re being taken by the police, hope seems to go out the window,” Timothy Motlow said. “But we shared with (Barron) that from this point forward, things can get better and we’re here to help them.”
To that end, the Motlows and their volunteers at Helping Hands put together two bags of toys for the children and another sack filled with chips and goodies. They hope to have the gifts delivered to the children, who have been placed in foster care.
“My heart goes out to them,” said Lorraine Motlow, who is a great grandmother. “I wish I could have taken those kids and brought them home.”
The Motlows have been running Helping Hands, which helps struggling families get on their feet, since 2004.
“They’re not the only family out there like that,” Lorraine Motlow said.
Cox Media Group
