Parents Charged With Second-Degree Murder After Their Daughter Dies From Severe Lice Infestation

Authorities in Georgia are investigating a 12-year-old girl’s death that may have been an indirect result of a severe lice infestation that possibly went untreated for years. Her parents have been arrested in connection to her death.

On Monday, during a preliminary hearing, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Ryan Hilton testified that medical records show Kaitlyn Yozviak’s death in August was the result of cardiac arrest with a secondary cause being severe anemia. The GBI also said earlier that the pre-teen suffered “excessive physical pain due to medical negligence,” which included “the most severe” lice infestation that the GBI’s office had ever witnessed. Hilton believes that it may have lasted for at least three years and that repeated bites from the lice gradually lowered her blood iron levels, which brought on anemia and may have triggered the cardiac attack. However, autopsy results are still pending.

Wilkinson County Superior Court Judge Brenda Trammell agreed that there was enough evidence to charge her parents, Mary Katherine “Katie” Horton and Joey Yozviak., with second-degree murder charges as well as second-degree child cruelty.

The horror unfolded August 26th when Kaitlyn’s mother called 911 and told the dispatcher that the child was unresponsive. She was later pronounced dead at Navicent Medical Center. When agents arrived at the family’s home, they discovered mattresses, stuffed animals, and other furniture in the young girl’s room covered in vermin. Neighbors also said they hadn’t seen Kaitlyn for the last month and a half to two months before her death. The two sons who belonged to the couple were removed from the home due to the unsanitary conditions. Her mother confessed to investigators that her daughter had not bathed within the last week and a half before she passed away.

DFCS opened a case in 2008, around the time that Kaitlyn was born once her parents decided against giving her up for adoption. The agency received no other reports until 2018 when a call came in about the home being “bug-infested, (with) excessive cats, and hazardous conditions.” Following the call, Kaitlyn was briefly placed in her aunt’s custody but was returned to her parents just six days later. The agency did not have any further encounters with the family until after Kaitlyn’s death.

Kaitlyn’s maternal grandmother, Anna Horton, blasted DFCS in a statement, revealing that she had fought to get custody of her granddaughter, but it was not granted for reasons unknown.

“Had the system done their job and rescued Kaitlyn, I would have raised her.” Horton said before saying that her parents “deserved” to be arrested.