An abandoned toddler ate drywall and diapers to survive, but his tragic death exposed the horrifying neglect behind his parents’ home

Parents are the first guardians of a toddler and are considered the safest place for the child until he figures out his world, but some crimes reveal the dreadful reality of bad parenting. Similar to a Boston couple’s negligence, a dreadful incident happened in Tell City when a toddler was found dead with severe dehydration and malnutrition, even when his parents were living under the same roof.​

According to the People, Trevor Reichard Hayes called the police to a home on Guttenberg Lane around 1:19 p.m. on March 31. Police were told about the boy who was not breathing. Police performed CPR, but it was visible that the child had died hours ago, and his body was extremely skinny and had several signs of bug bites on it. When they enquired about the house, they found out that the whole house was littered and living conditions were bad, except for the bedroom of the parents of the deceased child.​

The police officer on the site reported,  “poor living conditions that included feces on the floor in the two children’s rooms as well as an abundance of drywall and paint chips, dirt, and pieces of diapers [lying] everywhere as well as insects/bugs in the home, I could tell based on my training and experience that the child had been deceased for several hours,” he said. “The child was blue and pale.”

The autopsy of the child showed heartbreaking signs of him consuming diapers and drywall to survive before taking his last breath

The autopsy report brought to light the reality of the shocking death of the toddler. It is suggested that the boy who had died had been eating his diapers and drywall to survive before dying a painful death. His mother, Katherine Carter, tried to suggest that the child might have developed a habit of eating diapers to avoid the truth, but the malnourished body of the boy told a whole different story.

According to the autopsy report, “foreign material with a gel-like substance and small white pieces. These findings were consistent with the gel found in the diapers worn by [Erik] as well as the material of the diaper itself. Some of the white material removed from the colon was also consistent with the drywall, paint chips, or spackling.” After the report, Reicherd Hayes and his wife, Katherine Carter, were arrested, and the Indiana Department of Child Services took in the other two children found in the house.​

Carter and Reicherd Hayes are now facing charges of murder, neglect of a dependent resulting in death, neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, and neglect of a dependent. Both have been moved to jail, with Carter scheduled to appear in court on the 14th of May and Reicherd on the 28th of May 2026. With clear evidence against them, they are likely to face a severe sentence from the court, but the cause of their neglect has not yet been determined.