Children found shivering in rain after mom locks them out of house, Kentucky cops say

Two young boys made child abuse claims after police found them locked out of their home in the rain, according to Kentucky police.

A neighbor in Pikeville called police when she found the children around 9 p.m., and troopers arrived 40 minutes later, an arrest citation states. The 6-year-old boy had been left with his 8-year-old brother outside their home Monday and one of them was not wearing a shirt or shoes, according to an arrest report from Kentucky State Police.

The children were found safe with the neighbor, so the troopers went to check on their mother, who could be seen through the windows unresponsive inside the home, according to a citation.

The troopers broke into the home after their attempts to wake up the mom were unsuccessful, state police said. They were about to administer Narcan, a drug used to treat overdoses, when 39-year-old Holly Abshire woke up and began to “yell a barrage of obscenities” at the troopers, according to state police.

Abshire was placed under arrest while continuing to be combative with the troopers, the citation states. She shoved one of the troopers when he informed her that her children had been found outside in the rain, police said.

Troopers spoke with the young boys and the neighbor, who said she found them “very cold, wet and shivering,” according to police. The oldest boy said their mom treated him bad because she was “sick from medicine,” troopers said.

“Mommy beats me up,” the 6-year-old boy told them.

The 8-year-old went on to say that his mom had slammed him to the ground twice and stepped on him, and troopers found him with visible marks along his back, shoulder and neck, state police say. The younger boy was not found with bruising, according to police.

Abshire was charged with two counts of first-degree criminal child abuse, two counts of fourth-degree assault, menacing and resisting arrest.

She remains in the Pike County Detention Center on a $1,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday, court records show.

This story was originally published March 16, 2021 at 12:56 PM with the headline "Children found shivering in rain after mom locks them out of house, Kentucky cops say."