Rosa Yoder (Marion County Sheriff’s Office)
A 35-year-old woman in Indiana will not spend any time behind bars after admitting to her role in the death of her 12-year-old daughter, who died last year when a wound on her back became infected due to lack of care and unsanitary living conditions.
Marion County Superior Court Judge Marie Kern last month ordered Rosa Hargrave to serve three years of home detention followed by an additional four years of probation over the horrific death of young Rosa “May May” Hargrave, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
The sentencing came after Hargrave reached a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to one count of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury. In exchange, prosecutors dropped several other charges including two counts of neglect resulting in death.
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, May May on Feb. 28, 2023, was brought to the emergency room because a wound that stretched from her upper back to the side of her torso was “severely infected” and “oozing” a “yellowish-colored substance.”
Authorities said that the wound was from a skin graft that had been performed a little more than two years earlier due to necrotizing fasciitis and it was supposed to be cleaned daily.
“It was clear the wound was not cleaned or managed properly,” police wrote, noting that May May went into sepsis because the wound was “untreated” following her surgery.
Hargrave told authorities that she brought May May — who had autism and was mostly nonverbal — to the hospital because she had not eaten for about five days and was complaining of back pain. Upon arriving at the emergency room, doctors said May May “immediately began to vomit blood.”
Doctors who treated May May said there was “significant concern for neglect” regarding the child’s condition, emphasizing that May May would have certainly been showing severe symptoms in the days leading up to her hospital visit, likely for at least a week.
May May was pronounced dead on March 2, 2023, and the coroner’s office determined that her manner of death was a homicide and the cause of death was neglect.
Investigators executed a search warrant at the Hargrave home, which they described as being in “an extremely poor and unsanitary condition.” Detectives said they observed “numerous mice/rodents, cockroaches, bugs, feces, and half-eaten and rotten food throughout the entire house.” The rodents appeared to have grown accustomed to living in the home and were “unafraid of any human interaction,” police wrote.
“There was one dead mouse and portions of other various mouse body parts on the upstairs floor,” the affidavit stated. “(Police) further noted the house had a malodorous smell that appeared potentially toxic for humans / animals.”
The medical supplies in the victim’s bedroom appeared to be covered in rodent feces and the bathroom attached to her room did not have running water. Additionally, the three other children in the house — two 2-year-olds and a 6-year-old — were all injured and covered in rodent bites and rashes. At least one of the younger children also had bruising on their face and was missing patches of hair.
Hargrave’s boyfriend, Charles Turner, and sister, Felicia Hargrave, also lived in the home and were charged in connection with May May’s death. They previously pleaded guilty to neglect of a dependent and were sentenced to probation.
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