Police say a 1-year-old died after six children were left alone for about 12 hours in a home with little food and unsanitary conditions.
DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. — A 37-year-old woman is jailed without bond after police in suburban Atlanta said she left six children alone for about 12 hours, a 1-year-old later died, and investigators found a home they described as filthy and without enough food.
Sherry Diane Magby was charged with six counts of second-degree cruelty to children after officers responded March 28 to a home in the 6000 block of James D. Simpson Avenue, according to arrest warrant accounts reported by local news outlets. The Douglas County Coroner’s Office later confirmed the 1-year-old’s death. As of Thursday, authorities had not released the child’s cause or manner of death, and police said the investigation remained open, with the possibility of additional charges still unresolved.
According to the warrant summaries, officers were sent to the house on a cardiac arrest call and found five younger children, ages 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8, under the care of a 10-year-old. Investigators said Magby had been gone about half a day. The first officers inside reported what they described as a strong foul odor and rooms in disarray throughout the house. Police said the children had been left without adequate food or suitable living conditions. The warrants, as described in multiple reports, do not spell out Magby’s exact relationship to the children, an unanswered detail that has remained central as the case moved from the initial emergency response to a broader criminal inquiry.
The most disturbing account came from the oldest child. Police said the 10-year-old told officers there was not enough food in the home and that the 1-year-old had been eating ants and cockroaches. Investigators treated those statements as part of the basis for the cruelty charges. Local television footage and follow-up reporting also said an ambulance was seen at the home that day taking a baby away. Officers did not publicly explain the child’s condition at that moment, and the medical findings behind the death have not been released. That left major questions unanswered Thursday, including when the child died, whether malnutrition played a direct role, and whether prosecutors will seek charges tied specifically to the death once autopsy results and other evidence are reviewed.
The allegations shook neighbors in the Douglasville community, where some residents said they often saw the children outside but did not know they were going hungry. One neighbor told local television the claims were heartbreaking and said she would have fed the children if she had known. Another account from a nearby resident said the children had at times been seen outside late at night without an adult present. Just a short distance away, a community outreach center and a church stood as reminders that help was nearby, a point that deepened the sense of disbelief among people who lived and worked on the block. Ken Howell, who runs a local outreach program near the home, said the children could have been brought there for food.
The case also pulled earlier allegations against Magby back into view. Local reports said she had previously been charged in a 2023 case accusing her of stabbing a child in the back with a pocketknife as the boy ran away. In that earlier matter, she was charged with aggravated assault and cruelty to children, and she later was released on bond. Television stations in Atlanta reported that trial was scheduled for May. That earlier prosecution does not establish guilt in the current case, but it adds legal and factual context because Magby was already facing serious allegations involving a child when police responded to the March 28 emergency call. It also raises the stakes for prosecutors and the court as they decide how the new case should move forward.
For now, the charges filed are limited to six counts of second-degree cruelty to children, one count tied to each child identified in the warrant summaries. Magby was being held in the Douglas County Jail without bond, according to multiple reports Thursday. Police have said the investigation is ongoing, and local outlets reported that more charges could follow. The next formal steps are likely to depend on medical findings from the coroner, any autopsy report, interviews with the surviving children and adults connected to the household, and a review by prosecutors of whether the evidence supports homicide, neglect or other felony counts. Until then, several of the most important facts in the case, including the medical cause of the 1-year-old’s death, remain unknown.
Outside the home, the story settled over the neighborhood in fragments: the sight of emergency responders, the knowledge that six children were inside, and the shock of learning one of them had died. Howell said, “All they had to do was come down here. We could have helped them get food.” A neighbor, speaking anonymously, told a local station that the case was hard even to talk about. Those reactions did not answer the core questions investigators still face, but they showed how the case has been felt beyond the court file. In a block where people said they had seen the children playing, the allegations turned ordinary memories into evidence of a crisis that neighbors now say they did not fully understand until police arrived.
As of Thursday, Magby remained jailed without bond, the 1-year-old’s cause and manner of death had not been released, and Douglasville police had not announced any charges beyond the six child-cruelty counts. The next key milestone is expected to come with medical findings or a prosecutor’s decision on whether the case will expand.
Author note: Last updated April 9, 2026.