(DelMarVa Now) A Mears, Virginia, woman is accused of keeping two children in makeshift cages.
Two of her five children were kept in cribs with lids screwed on to the top from which they could not escape, according to court records and testimony during a probable cause hearing. Malista Ness-Hopkins, 38, is charged with five counts of abuse and neglect of those children.
All were living in unwholesome and unsafe surroundings covered with filth, dirty diapers, lice and insect bites, according to social workers and investigators who testified in Accomack County court. The children were all removed from the home July 28, the day social workers visited.
