Cole Lydick, Lindsey Lydick (Hendricks County Jail)
An Indiana mom and uncle who pleaded guilty years ago to felony meth possession now face felony charges for allegedly neglecting a 10-year-old boy by subjecting him to a trailer home filled with feces, mold, maggots, and several animals, including a Great Dane.
According to the probable cause affidavit from the Hendricks County Sheriff’s Department, authorities responded to a residence where Lindsey Jo Lydick, 38, and Cole Byron Lydick, 36, of Clayton, were living along U.S. Highway 40 on Oct. 11. Investigators had received a report from a person who said that “V1,” the 10-year-old boy, was living at a residence where the “ENTIRE TRAILER IS COVERED IN ANIMAL URINE, FECES, AND OTHER DEBRIS” (all caps as they appeared in the document).
Sgt. Josh Nohren, the documents said, “could immediately smell a strong odor of urine coming from within” the trailer as soon as he got there, and “large amounts of dog feces” led right up to the front door.
After learning that the boy’s mother and the boy’s uncle were living in the trailer, the sergeant was “granted permission to enter the residence and check the welfare of VI,” the affidavit continued.
Inside the home was a Great Dane and four cats, and the “odor of animal urine intensified” the deeper the sergeant went inside the trailer, where the “flooring was covered in debris (clothing, miscellaneous personal property, hoarding),” the documents said.
It was observed that 10-year-old boy, “who appeared to be in good health and with no known injuries,” slept in a room with his mother despite the presence of “moldy clothes on the floor, cat feces, and large amounts of clutter.”
The sergeant further noted that the “bathroom had animal feces and urine in it, and it appeared the shower had not been used recently,” the affidavit detailed.
Shockingly, when the sergeant opened the door to one of two refrigerators in the home, he allegedly found “old, moldy food” inside and flies and gnats flying out of the appliance. That was the last straw, as the sergeant called up the Department of Child Services (DCS) to report what he saw.
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A case worker responded by removing the boy from the trailer home and placing him into the custody of his father.
The case worker allegedly corroborated the nightmarish conditions inside the trailer, noting that the entire floor was “covered in what looked to be urine, grease, and animal feces,” and that the black refrigerator in the trailer had “an odor of rotting meat,” maggots in plain view, and a “coating on the base that looks to be mold of some type.”
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Inside the bathroom was an “overrunning waste basket with what looked to be used toilet paper with human urine and feces,” the documents said, noting that the residents allegedly claimed the toilet did not flush.
The responding sergeant concluded that felony neglect of a dependent charges were warranted, and the defendants were booked into the Hendricks County Jail on Saturday, Oct. 14.
Indiana jail and court records show that Lindsey and Cole Lydick have been booked numerous times over the past several years, starting in 2019 with a meth possession case.
Cole Lydick and Lindsey Lydick in 2019 mug shots (Hendricks County Jail)
Court records show that both pleaded guilty to felony meth possession in 2019 and they were sentenced to serve probation.
After the defendants were arrested again in 2019 allegedly violating their probation, the uncle faced another probation violation arrest in 2020.
Cole and Lindsey Lydick probation violation mug shots in 2019 (Hendricks County Jail)
Jail records say that while Cole Lydick was released from custody on Oct. 16, Lindsey Lydick remains behind bars without bond in the neglect of a dependent case. A pending misdemeanor theft case from March 2023 explains why the latter is still in custody.
Lindsey Lydick was scheduled to face a bench trial in the theft case on Oct. 16 — just two days after her latest booking. Hendricks County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Zielinski ordered her bond revoked on Oct. 13.
Read the probable cause affidavit in the neglect case here.
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