The Habersham County Sheriff’s Office has charged a Clarkesville couple with cruelty to children for allegedly severely neglecting their four young children. Deputies arrested Melinda Woods Cowart, 32, and David Brett Cowart, 35, on March 23 following an investigation.
The children, ages 4, 6, 9, and 10, were removed from the home. They are now in protective custody and are receiving physical and mental health services, officials say.
“There wasn’t anything where they went physically out of their way to abuse them, but there was definitely a lack of day-to-day care you would expect from a reasonable parent,” HCSO Public Information Officer Kevin Angell tells Now Habersham. He says the children lacked proper nutrition and grooming and the younger children were “very delayed in their development.”
Deputy Angell says the 6-year-old appeared to be the approximate height of a 3-year-old due to the apparent lack of nutrition.
“The conditions of the home, from the pictures I observed, are probably some of the worst conditions that I’ve seen in my 13 years in law enforcement,” he adds.
The two older children were enrolled in school. The two youngest were not. On March 14, the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) referred the case to the Habersham County Special Victims Unit Patrol Task Force. That prompted an investigation that ultimately led to the children’s removal from what the sheriff’s office describes as an “abusive environment.”
As part of their investigation, the two older children were transported to FAITH’s Power House for Kids, where they were forensically interviewed. The patrol investigator spoke with the younger children.
“I sat in on the interview done by our patrol investigator and what he experienced from being around the children and from seeing the pictures of the home was disgusting to him,” Angell says. “It drew a lot of emotion in him because he’s also a parent.”
On March 23, investigators interviewed the parents. Those interviews, combined with the information obtained during the forensic and other law enforcement interviews, provided enough probable cause, officials say, to issue arrest warrants for the Cowarts.
Angell says neither parent has any obvious mental impairment that would lead to this type of treatment of their children. It remains unclear how long the children were living in these conditions. The sheriff’s office hopes people familiar with the family will be able to shed some light on that.
“I think it’s fair to say that there’s a potential people visited this location over the past few months and there’s someone who may have seen these conditions and children,” says Deputy Angell. “We would like to speak with them to get an idea of how long this has been going on.”
Investigators charged Melinda and David Cowart with four counts each of second-degree cruelty to children and one count each of maintaining a disorderly house. Both are booked at the Habersham County jail; no bond has been set.
The couple surrendered their two youngest children to DFCS and the two oldest are with family members. The investigation remains open and ongoing.
Anyone with information about this case is asked to contact investigators at the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office at 706-839-0500.
This article has been updated with additional information
