3-year-old was kept in dirty shed without power, GA cops say. Now, couple charged
A couple accused of holding a 3-year-old inside a shed are facing child cruelty charges and have been taken into custody, Georgia deputies said.
Sarah Elizabeth Pombert, 34, and Joseph Matthew Turner, 35, were arrested Monday, June 2. They’re accused of keeping the toddler in a “dirty living space” in a backyard shed at their home in Douglasville, according to an arrest warrant from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.
Investigators said the shed didn’t have running water or electricity. The toddler was left alone “unbathed and unclothed with criminal negligence,” authorities wrote.
The sheriff’s office didn’t say if Pombert and Turner were related to the 3-year-old.
McClatchy News reached out to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office for more information June 5 and was awaiting a response.
Both were charged with second-degree child cruelty and taken to the Douglas County Jail, online records show.
Douglasville is about a 20-mile drive west from downtown Atlanta.
This story was originally published June 5, 2025 at 3:32 PM with the headline "3-year-old was kept in dirty shed without power, GA cops say. Now, couple charged."