Share and Follow
Inset, top to bottom: Anthony Grogg and Victoria Frampton (West Virginia Department of Corrections). Background: Fairmont Police Department (Google Maps).
A 23-year-old woman and a 22-year-old man in West Virginia have been arrested after a 3-year-old child in their care allegedly fell from a second-story window while trying to escape a locked room and was eventually found wandering along the side of a nearby “main road.”
Victoria Frampton and Anthony Grogg were taken into custody on Thursday and charged with one count each of gross neglect of child creating a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Frampton and Grogg on Sept. 17 were looking after the child and decided to place a “child lock on the inside” of her door to “prevent [her] from getting out” of the room, Clarksburg NBC affiliate WBOY reported, citing a probable cause affidavit from the Fairmont Police Department.
The child was reportedly left in the room for about two hours, during which time neither adult apparently checked on the toddler. Police also noted that there was no camera or child monitor in the room, meaning the adults could not know if the child was in distress or needed assistance, Weston CBS affiliate WDTV reported.
Eventually, the 3-year-old “became so distressed that she removed the mattress from the bed” and used it to open and climb out of a bedroom window on the second floor of the home, the affidavit reportedly said.
Security camera footage obtained by police reportedly showed the little girl “dangling from the roof before falling to the ground.” The footage showed her falling “approximately 10 feet before landing on a bed of gravel,” the affidavit reportedly said. She then “rolled around on the ground” as though she was “in great pain” before ultimately getting up and walking toward the busy road.
About 45 minutes later, a neighbor contacted police after spotting the victim as she was wandering alongside “a main road with heavy vehicle traffic.” That neighbor also purportedly tried to reach Frampton and Grogg.
The neighbor was unable to get in touch with the duo. In fact, even after police arrived, an officer and the neighbor were reportedly unable to get either Frampton or Grogg on the phone despite trying for almost an hour.
When authorities failed to reach the suspects, officers went to the toddler”s home, but were unable make contact with Frampton or Grogg until an officer entered the home through the child’s open window.
As authorities spoke with the suspects, they reportedly admitted that both of them were “unaware” that the 3-year-old had managed to escape the bedroom.
Both suspects are currently being held in the North Central Regional Jail in lieu of $200,012 bond.