UPDATE: Authorities report that “the baby girl is recovering and the court has placed her in a safe home.”
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LEE COUNTY, Miss. — A Mississippi couple found living in filth with syringes, discarded food, even garbage found piling up inside their home, and it was all discovered by police there to check on a newborn baby.
Nina Gebhart and David Fisher are in the Lee County Jail facing felony charges while the infant is in the hospital. Now people in the community are in shock.
Neighbors said the residence has always been a “hotbed” for “suspicious behavior.”
“It’s always been messy, it’s always been sad, a sad situation,” Haley Long, a neighbor, said.
Long lives nearby and is shocked to learn Gebhart gave birth to a baby with no medical attention and these living conditions. While WREG-TV was at the mobile home we saw drug paraphernalia inside the camper and on the ground outside.
“It breaks my heart,” Long said. “How could any human just have a baby like that, but it be in this situation with all this drugs and needles and dirtiness. It just breaks my heart.”
According to the Lee County Sheriff, deputies came to the camper beginning Nov. 4., to make “welfare checks” regarding a possible newborn baby. Each time, however, the couple told deputies no baby had been born and that gebhart was still pregnant.
Last Thursday, deputies returned and found the newborn needing immediate medical attention.
The couple was arrested and charged with felony child abuse and depriving the infant of necessities.
Long, who has been feeding the couple’s abandoned dogs, said she did not really know them.
“About five days ago, I came by here and they were out. I mean it’s always a “hot” mess down here, really. They’re always out at night, but I saw them about five days ago as I was heading into work,” Long said.
She said law enforcement was frequently called here and the couple had been arrested numerous times on drug charges. She said she hopes this time things will be different.
“They get out of jail so often, and they still live here. Hopefully they’re away for good this time,” Long said.