On 10/7/2024, 33-year-old Rodney McWeay was sentenced to 155 years in prison for murder and kidnapping in connection with the death of his 4-year-old daughter, Treasure McWeay. Authorities said McWeay was also convicted of abusing his two other children, ages 3 and 4.
On 11/12/2023, police were called to a home in Atlanta, Georgia, and found Treasure unresponsive. She and her two brothers were taken to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, where Treasure was pronounced dead. McWeay was subsequently arrested.
The medical examiner's office determined that Treasure died of dehydration and severe malnutrition due to neglect. She weighed only about 24 pounds.
McWeay confessed to confining the three children to separate rooms monitored by cameras, without bathrooms or air conditioning.
"Treasure endured starvation and abandonment by her own father, who used violence and control to prevent her and her two brothers from receiving the help they desperately needed," the prosecutor said.
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Rodney McWeay received a life sentence on 14 counts, including murder, kidnapping, and child cruelty. _Photo: FOX5_ |
About six months before the incident, authorities discovered the three children confined in a moldy room with deplorable conditions at McWeay’s residence. The children were then placed in their mother’s care. A month later, McWeay abducted them from their mother’s home in Maryland and prevented child protective services from intervening.
Records show the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) made repeated attempts to intervene in the months leading up to Treasure’s death, but police response was often delayed and ineffective. An Atlanta police officer stated, "Even if we knocked on the door and saw the children inside, we couldn’t do anything."
A child protective services investigator testified that she found the children locked in a room during a welfare check several months before Treasure’s death. She recalled McWeay saying, “This is how I discipline my children," while snapping his fingers to signal his daughter to sit still.
Tue Anh (_according to AP, Fox5_)
