Lincoln Police say a 46-year-old woman is facing felony child abuse and other charges after bringing a severely malnourished boy to a local hospital. Public Information manager Erika Thomas says investigators with LPD’s Special Victims Unit took Angela Lowe into custody on Thursday at her home and booked her in the Lancaster County Jail.
“The investigation began on January 12 when Lowe brought a 12-year-old boy in her care to a local emergency room.,” Thomas says. “A nurse made the report of possible child neglect to police due to the child being significantly malnourished, too weak to lift himself up or speak and a core body temperature of 80 degrees.”
Thomas says the boy weighed only 47 pounds. An average 12-year-old boy should weigh approximately 90 pounds. “The boy was airlifted to Children’s Hospital in Omaha and was determined to be in septic shock with pneumonia,” Thomas says.
“Additional symptoms and injuries led investigators to believe he had been neglected, starved and tortured for several months.” Thomas says he was not expected to live past a couple of days and remains in critical but stable condition in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
The child is now in state custody and Lowe is no longer his legal guardian and cannot have contact with him. In addition to felony child abuse, Lowe was booked for first degree assault and false imprisonment.