Court filings substantiating children who are threatened by abuse or neglect and in need of services, as well as criminal cases, have risen sharply this year.
The Republic file photo
A malnourished 4-year-old quadriplegic child in Columbus with cerebral palsy who was found with cigarette burns on her hands and chest and later admitted to Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis.
A 6-year-old child and a toddler found home alone by Columbus police with an unsecured, loaded handgun in plain view in the living room.
A small child found by Columbus police wandering around outside alone at 5:15 a.m. near 15th and Lafayette Streets without proper clothing in near-freezing temperatures.
A 4-year-old child and a toddler in Elizabethtown found by Bartholomew County Sheriff’s deputies who were naked and playing unsupervised in a backyard pool while their father was asleep inside the home and later admitted to not knowing where the children were.
These are just a handful of what county and state records show to be an increase in criminal cases of child abuse and neglect — as well as a surge in child welfare cases — filed in Bartholomew County courts this year.
As of Aug. 27, a total of 117 child in need of services cases, also known as CHINS cases, had been filed in Bartholomew County this year — already surpassing the full-year total of 102 cases filed in 2023 and the 87 cases filed in 2022, according to the Bartholomew County Clerk’s Office.
Currently, the county is on pace for 178 CHINS cases this year, which would be the highest annual total since at least 2018.
A child in need in services is defined under state law as a child who is experiencing one of several categories of neglect or abuse that is unlikely to be stopped without the intervention of the court.
CHINS cases are civil cases filed by the Indiana Department of Child Services to protect the child and secure court-ordered services. These cases are different than criminal cases that might be filed by prosecutors, though some criminal cases are filed against parents or guardians based on issues brought to light in CHINS cases.
It is currently unclear what is driving the increase in cases this year. Local advocates and officials referred questions about the increase in cases to the Indiana Department of Child Services, which did not respond to requests for comment.
At the same time, the Bartholomew County Prosecutor’s Office is on pace this year to file 61% more criminal cases related to child neglect, child molestation and battery of children younger than 14 years old — with prosecutors filing, on average, one such criminal case per week so far this year.
As of Thursday, prosecutors had filed 20 criminal cases of child neglect this year, up from 15 cases during all of last year, according to figures provided by Bartholomew County Prosecutor Lindsey Holden-Kay.
In addition, prosecutors had filed 10 cases of child molestation so far this year, nearly reaching last year’s total of 12 cases with nearly four months to go in the year. There also had been six cases filed for battery of a child under 14 years old so far this year, matching the full-year total for 2023.
Monthly reports on child abuse and neglect in Bartholomew County from the Indiana Department of Child Services that were current as of July show a similar trend, with the county on pace to see a 49% increase in substantiated cases this year.
Much of the projected increase is driven by substantiated reports of neglect, with 130 cases reported in the county as of July 31, nearly matching the 135 cases reported during all of last year.
The reports also show three substantiated cases of human trafficking involving children in Bartholomew County during the first seven months of the year, the highest the number of such cases in a single year since at least 2018, when there was one case, according to state records.
The local cases of human trafficking represented about 8% of all substantiated cases in the state over the first seven months of the year, even though Bartholomew County accounts for about 1% of the state’s total population, according to state records.
Holden-Kay said no cases of child human trafficking have been referred to her office this year.
While the reports do not provide any more details about the child abuse or neglect cases, court filings in some criminal cases of child neglect may shed some light on contributing factors in some of the cases.
In three of the six probable cause affidavits filed in cases of felony child neglect reviewed by The Republic, at least one of the child’s parents were allegedly struggling with substance abuse or experiencing a mental health crisis.
In one case, a mother who is facing a felony child neglect charge told a friend that she left her children home alone and planned to shoot herself “somewhere not around her children” or possibly go to a drug dealer’s home, according to court records. She later returned home with a Polar Pop and an unloaded handgun in her bag.
In another case, a mother who was on parole for narcotics and theft charges told Columbus police that she had used methamphetamine the day before she was charged with felony child neglect.
In a third case, a mother of a child placed in foster care had tested positive for fentanyl and cocaine five times in a two-month period before being charged with felony child neglect.
