REEVES COUNTY, Texas — Three people have been arrested after a child was found locked inside a dog kennel on Sept. 9.
The mother, 43-year-old Arizona Rooney, her boyfriend, 23-year-old Jacob Cantrell and the grandmother, 76-year-old Brandy Rooney were all immediately arrested by Reeves County Sheriff's Deputies.
According to the RCSO, the deputies responded to a welfare check on Sept. 9 at the Franco's RV Park located at 362 FM 2119 due to a request from Child Protective Services. When the deputies entered the RV, they saw the six-year-old girl locked inside the dog kennel, and described the conditions as unlivable. The kennel was also zip-tied shut to prevent the child from exiting. Deputies saw human feces, a potty toilet, urine and a doll inside the kennel.
The temperature inside the RV was above 94 degrees, while the bedroom itself had an air conditioner to keep that part of the RV cool. The child also had a lack of food, water, clothes and horrible body odor according to the deputies.
Reeves County Sheriff Art Granado says he has never seen anything like it.
“I mean it was so bad that the mom and the boyfriend and the dog were living in [a] separate part of the trailer with an air conditioner, and the baby was alone in another room -- temperatures up to about 95, maybe up to 100 degrees," Sheriff Granado said.
The girl was immediately taken to Reeves Regional Hospital where she was diagnosed with being "dehydrated and malnourished". There were no signs of physical or sexual abuse according to the hospital.
CPS was given custody of the child for safety reasons and taken to an unknown location.
“She’s taken for safety reasons that way the family won’t try to contact her or go by [and] try to get her," Granado said.
CPS was also able to evaluate the child since taking custody of her and determined that the child was non-verbal possibly due to years of neglect.
Arizona Rooney and Jacob Cantrell have both been charged with injury to a child as well as abandoning or endangering a child and unlawful restraint with exposure to serious bodily injury. Bond has been set for $100,000 for each of the first two charges and $50,000 for the final charge. Brandy Rooney has been charged with Injury to a Child and has since posted bond and was released from the Reeves County Jail.
Reeves County Child Abuse arrests
We will continue to update this story as we receive more information. The Reeves County Sheriff’s Office and it’s Criminal Investigation Division are actively investigating, along with CPS and even law enforcement agencies from other states where CPS from those states has been involved.