Handicapped 9-Year-Old Dies In Filthy Home, Mother Jailed

WARWICK, RI — A Warwick mother is being held on $25,000 surety bail after being charged with cruelty to or neglect of a child, which resulted in the death of a 9-year-old. Michele Rothgeb, 55, claimed she had been "hands-off" with her eight adopted special needs children for the past two weeks because she had the flu, a report says.

Emergency responders arrived at the Oakland Beach Avenue home on Jan. 3 to find 9-year-old Zah-Nae lying in the tub unresponsive, a Providence Journal report says, and the home in squalid condition. Zah-Nae had cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that affects muscle control and motor skills.

According to the Journal report, police found that Rothgeb's 15-year-old grandson, who has Asperger's syndrome, had been told to take care of the rest of the kids. Rothgeb said she had taken the "hands-off" approach to avoid spreading her flu to the children.

See the Patch article on DCYF Director Trista Piccola's press conference.

Zah-Nae used a wheelchair, but couldn't use the bathroom in it. It's unknown if that was due to the design of the house or the garbage.

The 15-year-old told police he saw Zah-Nae earlier that morning “crawling from her bedroom to the bathroom...due to her being covered in vomit,” according to the Journal. He helped her into the tub around 8:30 a.m. that morning and helped her shower. He then put a few inches of water in the tub to let her play, which he said was typical, the report says.

See more on Patch: Guardian Charged With Death Of 9-Year-Old Girl

Around noon he added water to the tub so she could continue playing, the report says. He then left around 2 p.m. to pick up several of his siblings at the bus stop.

Then, around 4:30 p.m. another sibling went into the bathroom and found Zah-Nae face down and unresponsive in the tub.

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Police who visited the home found garbage "all over the house." Zah-Nae's bedroom had a pile of dirty diapers in it. One of the two beds was covered in feces and urine "and appeared not to have been changed in many months," the report says. Another bed had netting around it that was soiled with what police believed to be animal droppings.

The report says the house also was home to a 120-pound bull mastiff, two turtles and a guinea pig.

"I would be surprised if some sort of homicide [charge] is not brought," said District Court Magistrate Joseph P. Ippolito Jr. after reading the police affidavit, the Journal reported.

See the full Providence Journal report here.

Photo credit: Warwick Police Department