A 21-day-old baby’s death on Thursday prompted an investigation into poor living conditions.
Taylea James was pronounced dead at Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical center on Thursday after her mother, who could not be identified, said she fell asleep with the child.
When she awoke, she said the baby was unresponsive, said Pike County Coroner Percy Pittman.
When Pittman went to the home on Morgantown Road in McComb, he noticed the floor and roof had holes in them and there were extention cords running through the house with clothes hanging on them.
“The house was not fit for dogs to live in,” Pittman said.
Pittman said there were four adults and four children living in the house, which appeared to have no running water or electricity.
After seeing the conditions that the children were living in, Pittman contacted Pike County Supervisors Tazwell Bowsky and Gary Honea to help him raise funds for the mother to get an apartment with the McComb Housing Authority.
He said he was told the mother needed $160 for a unit, which he was able to raise with help from employees at First Bank on Delaware Avenue.
“It’s supposed to be in the 30s this weekend and if we didn’t get them somewhere to stay, I would have been back over there because one of them would have froze to death,” Pittman said.
Pittman said the mother will also need help funding funeral expenses.
“All of us have positions in this county and we spend money on the election, and that money could be helping kids,” he said. “The kids don’t ask to be here.”
Pittman said had the home been in the city, it would have been inspected, but the county does not have a building inspector.
“Someone should have complained about it,” he said. “I went to get information for the report and that’s how I got involved.”
Pike County lead investigator Lance Falvey said there is no foul play suspected, but the infant’s body has been sent to Jackson for an autopsy.
Pittman is working on setting up a fund for the mother and will release those details to the public after a plan is in motion.
