Louisville mother arrested for neglect after children found starving and sleeping outside

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Louisville judge has set a $50,000 cash bond for the woman arrested Thursday, after police said they found out her children were starving and sleeping outside.

Louisville Metro Police got involved after JCPS officials found Betty Sue Snider's 16-year-old daughter sleeping on the floor of a school restroom. Two other children had been sleeping under a gazebo covered in the yard of their home, which had no electricity or running water.

BETTY SUE SNIDER ARRAIGNMENT 8-30-2024 (1).jpeg — Betty Sue Snider hid her face, as she waited to be arraigned on charges for allegedly neglecting her children, who were found malnourished and living outdoors. (WDRB Image) Aug. 30, 2024

Snider, 34, hid her face as she waited for her name to be called in court. The judge set her bond at $50,000 cash during her Friday appearance, where she pleaded not guilty to three counts of wanton endangerment, three counts of abandonment of a minor and three counts of endangering the welfare of a minor.

Snider's public defender asked the judge to lower her bond, but that request was denied. Snider also pleaded for a lower bond, saying she's in danger of losing her home if she can't get out to make payments. The judge replied that her home is currently "unlivable," but Snider said she was in the process of moving, when she was arrested on Thursday.

According to court documents, Snider's 16-year-old daughter was found sleeping in a bathroom at her school Wednesday. Officials with Jefferson County Public Schools, along with police, went to the address on file for the teen. That's where officers found two minor children, 10 and 11, living in a gazebo covered with tarps.

According to court documents, the condition of the home was unlivable, with no water or electricity. The children were malnourished and dehydrated.

Snider was arrested, and the children were taken to a local hospital to be checked out.

Relatives said Thursday night the home is infested with spiders, roaches and rodents. The refrigerator hasn't worked for months, and dirty clothes, fast food containers, cigarette butts, drug paraphernalia and trash are heaped throughout the home.

"They don't eat nothing out of the refrigerator or the house," said Mary Burkhammer, the children's great-grandmother. "They have no bedrooms. They are a mess."

Burkhammer lives right down the street and said she has called police and Child Protective Services several times, but no action was taken until Thursday.

"I don't know what's the matter with the mother," Burkhammer said. "I don't. This is just like a dream. How can you leave a kid one day and one night knowin' they don't have nothin' to eat and they don't know for sure? She knows they don't come down here because they are told to stay away from me. If they are caught down here, no tellin' what would happen."

According to the arrest citation, Snider told police she knew "the home was unlivable and filled with items" and that she knew the children were sleeping outside. In addition, Snider admitted to police she would leave the children alone at the location "for extended periods of time."

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