(Memphis) A Memphis woman is out of jail on $5,000 bond after police say she abused her disabled child.
We’re introducing you to the disabled woman, who police say was left in a hot car Monday.
Her mother, Jennifer Cotten, is fighting the charges, but a family member is sending a message to the State: “Don’t give Cotten her children back.”
Cotten’s brother says she’s been on drugs for many years, lost custody of her children multiple times and now says it’s obvious at least one of her children has been neglected severely.
When WREG’s Sabrina Hall touched the woman’s leg, it was thinner than Hall’s wrist.
Rebecca Cotten is smaller than a 6-year-old child.
“She is starved to death,” said her uncle.
Rebecca is turning 21 years old next month. She is five feet tall and weighs just 55 pounds.
She can’t tell us how she got like this.
“She can`t communicate at all.”
She can’t talk because she suffers from cerebral palsy.
Police say she was abused and neglected by her caretaker, her own mother.
Jennifer Cotten is charged with leaving Rebecca in a hot car Monday, with windows rolled-up, no engine on, as she did drugs in a North Memphis house.
Rebecca was taken to the hospital where nurses called her “severely malnourished.”
They contacted her uncle, who doesn’t want to be identified. He picked her up and took her to his house.
“My mother took care of Rebecca mainly when my mother was alive,” he said.
After his mom’s death, he says Cotten took off with her children, and hasn’t been seen since.
Her other 5-year-old daughter is now in state custody.
The uncle would like to care for her too, but is afraid the State is going to give Cotton both of her children back.
Department of Children Services met with all of them Tuesday, including Cotten, who’s out of jail on bond.
“She told them she has a eating disorder and when she eats, she spits up and she spits the food back out and doesn’t consume it, which has not happened since we’ve had her.”
He wants State officials to look at Rebecca and know she’s better off in his care.
The uncle says he is working with Adult Protective Services to gain custody of Rebecca and he hopes the courts and DCS will allow him to adopt the 5-year-old.