Police: Couple’s home had ‘inhumane’ conditions

PICKENS — A Pickens couple faces multiple charges after police and DSS workers allegedly found two small children and a bedridden adult living in “inhumane” conditions.

According to Pickens County Sheriff’s Office chief deputy Creed Hashe, Jeremy Ray Holder and Erin Nicole Holder, both 23, of Massingill Memorial Drive, were each charged with two counts of unlawful neglect of a child and one count of neglect of a vulnerable adult.

Hashe said sheriff’s office officials were notified by the Department of Social Services on March 16 about allegations of neglect at a home where a bedridden senior citizen and two children under the age of 5 were living.

Along with DSS workers, deputies responded to the home and found “inhumane” conditions, Hashe said, resulting in the removal and placement of the two children and the adult with other family members.

According to arrest warrants, the defendants are accused of placing the children at an unreasonable risk of harm and knowingly and willfully neglecting the bedridden adult by living in a home “filled with garbage, molded food, animal feces and roaches occupying almost every room.”

Warrants also allege the children’s feet were “caked over with dirt and animal feces” and the vulnerable adult’s bed had roaches crawling in it, as well as soiled sheets.

The children are ages 2 and 4, according to warrants.

The Holders turned themselves in at the Pickens County Law Enforcement Center on Sunday, Hashe said. They were each released on a total $10,000 surety bond.