3 brothers found starving, 'very weak'

Herald-Journal (Spartanburg, SC)

Author: MONICA MERCERand JASON SPENCER

LYMAN -- The 5-year-old boy weighed less than 20 pounds.

When offered food in Spartanburg Regional Medical Center's emergency room, he said he would save it.

Like his older brothers -- one is 7 years old, one 8 -- doctors and law enforcement deemed him malnourished and neglected. The three appeared to be "starved" and "extremely thin and very weak" when a Spartanburg County sheriff's deputy found them inside a mobile home on Lamb Road in Lyman Thursday night. He had responded to a 911 call by a neighbor who wished to remain anonymous.

Later, two of the boys would tell female officers that they had been bound with plastic zip ties in order to be kept from food.

The youngest boy "resembled a skeleton, with the skin withdrawn tight against his face," according to an incident report.

After being found, the children were immediately placed in emergency protective custody and taken to the hospital. A short time later, their adoptive parents, Dennis and Molly McCurry, were each charged with three counts of intentional infliction of great bodily injury upon a child, a felony considered "violent" in nature that carries a minimum 20-year prison term.

"This is the worst case of child abuse I've seen in 19 years," said Sgt. Kevin Bobo with the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office.

Friday night, Magistrate Judge John Poole denied the couple bail, calling the crimes "egregious" after reviewing the charges and photos of the children. Dates for future hearings were not set.

Dennis, 30, and Molly, 29, who have no prior criminal records, told officers that their family "had been dealing with a stomach virus that had caused the weight loss," the incident report stated. Dennis told Poole during the bail proceeding that he had lost 10 pounds.

The 8-year-old weighed 39.5 pounds; the 7-year-old, just over 32 pounds.

All three boys were treated for head lice and had bruises, scratches and burn marks on various parts of their bodies.

They are the biological nephews of Molly McCurry, though she and Dennis had adopted them.

The couple also has custody of a girl, 10, Molly's biological daughter. She was treated for head lice and is also in protective custody, but Bobo said she was not malnourished and did not require medical treatment.

"It appeared that mom, dad and daughter ate one way, and the boys ate another way," Bobo said.

'Never caused problems'

Paul Lamb, who lives across the street from the McCurry's mobile home, said he sees the family often enough to wave and say "hello," but doesn't really know them well. He said he thought they'd been having financial problems.

"They went to our church, Calvary Baptist Church. They'd come in on and off," Lamb said. "The father, he works a good bit. He worked every day."

Lamb said that, to him, the three boys looked thin, but not malnourished. Growing up in the country, he says he looked the same way as a child.

"They never caused any problems," Lamb said. "I'd see them out cleaning the yard with their kids. They tried their best. One time, their water lines broke, and (Dennis) crawled under the house and fixed it.

"With only one income, it's hard, I guess."

Bobo said the investigation is ongoing. Deputies found zip ties in the home – though the couple denies using them to restrain the boys.

The children had been living with the McCurrys since 2003, but Bobo could not say how long they had been in their current condition.

"If someone had not called 911, we probably would have been looking at death," he said.