SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) – Imagine a 4-year-old boy bound in a crab trap, something that looks like a small dog cage, with his mouth taped shut.
“It makes me sick to my stomach,” Charlene Collins, a concerned parent who lives nearby, said.
That’s how one Savannah father found his son while in his mother’s custody.
A week ago, the father visited the boy on the 200 block of Waycross Rd. in South Chatham County. He took his son away and called police.
Now, authorities are searching for the 4-year-old’s mother Jill Love.
“As a parent I can’t imagine why anybody would want to tie up a 4-year-old or do anything with a 4-year-old,” Collins said.
Collins has lived in the neighborhood for five years. She says she’s never heard anything like this happen before.
“My concern is their parents,” Collins said. “You know, if you have one child that’s going to be, you know, in danger with one parent the question is what are the parents? You know, where is there mindset in all of this?”
Police say Love didn’t act alone. They say her sister also played a role.
The boy was in his aunt’s house, Amy Saunders, at the time. She’s been charged with first degree felony cruelty to a child.
But, charging the pair won’t change what they’ve done. One social worker says in cases like this a child will need comfort from those closest to him.
“Ongoing support for an indefinite period of time,” Dr. Kendall Johnson, a social worker and therapist, said. “You just kind of have to see how a child comes through it”
Police are still searching for Jill Love who may also go by Jill Saunders. Officers say Jones has ties to both Savannah, Ga. and Springfield, Ga.
If you have any information you’re asked to call CrimeStoppers at 912-234-2020.