3 charged in MS neglect case after call for baby leads to horse, dogs

PANOLA COUNTY, Miss. — A welfare check on a nine-day-old infant at a Mississippi home led authorities to charge three people under accusations they neglected the child and several animals.

The Panola County Sheriff’s Department said deputies were called to a home on Morris Lane on Sept. 14.

“They entered the house (and) the trailer and it was poor living conditions in the house,” said Panola County Sheriff Shane Phelps. “There was a nine-day-old baby there.”

They say they found the nine-day-old in conditions that caused them to call Child Protective Services. The child was taken into protective custody.

While there, authorities say they found a severely neglected horse that was left without food or water.

An organization named Mississippi Horses is now caring for the five-year-old mare.

They also found eight dogs and a cat in “various stages of neglect” on the property. They’ve since been rescued.

Steven Archer, 32, is charged with animal cruelty; Kaitlyn Kirtley, 28, is charged with animal cruelty and confining an animal without food and water; and Angel Brimhall, 28, is charged with child deprivation with substantial harm.

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Both Archer and Kirtley have bonded out of Panola County Jail.

As Panola County authorities continue to investigate this case, Sheriff Phelps said that it’s a blessing deputies made it to the house when they did.

“From what I been told about what the living conditions was, no child should have been in that home,” Phelps said.

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