Pair charged with child abuse after children found in squalor: Deputies

FLAT LICK, Ky. (WTVQ) – Two people have been charged with two counts of child abuse

after two children were allegedly found Monday in squalid conditions.

According to the Knox County Sheriff’s Department, 30-year-old Burchell Rice and 22-year-old Kendra Frederick were charged Monday afternoon.

Deputies said they received a complaint of a child running around unattended and naked outside an apartment on Dogwood Village Lane in Flat Lick.

When the deputies arrived, they couldn’t find the child, but could hear a small child crying inside an apartment. The deputies tried to get someone to answer the door and succeeded only when they warned the people inside they were going to force the door open.

When the deputies entered the apartment, they located a 2-year-old and an infant along with Rice and Fredrick in the residence filled with rotting food and feces matted to the carpet as well as trash, rotting food, and unwashed dishes.

Child Protective Services personnel took possession of the children, who were later released to a family member. Deputy Steve Owens arrested Rice and Frederick charging both with two counts of third-degree criminal abuse.