KANSAS CITY, Mo. –It’s difficult to imagine a ten-year-old girl weighing only 32 pounds when according to Livestrong.com, the average weight for a girl that age is 72 pounds.
The ten-year-old girl known only as L.P., who was found Friday locked in a closet and severely undernourished, wore a size two T-shirt. According to the Kansas City Missouri School District, the last time she was registered in school was in 2006 when she was in kindergarten.
Neighbors in the 1300 block of Highland who saw her can’t forget the condition she was in Friday.
“She said she was very frail, skinny, dirty, and her eyes were swollen shut,” said Aishah Coppage, a next-door neighbor whose daughter saw L.P. as authorities brought her out of the home and took her away in an ambulance.
“She never talked about a third child,” Coppage said. “The kids never talked about having an older brother, sister.”
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FOX 4’s Rob Low tried to talk to Marcus Benson, 34, the father of the other two children, ages 2 and 8, who lived in the home, but Low was told to leave.
“You guys need to leave me alone!” a woman at Benson’s address yelled.
Benson has denied knowing L.P. was in the urine and feces-filled closet but neighbors question the truth in that.
“Heck no,” said Coppage. “He knew the whole time. he knew. He was aware of it. He just didn’t care, like he said out of his own mouth– ‘Cause it wasn’t his child. What I’m supposed to do? That’s her oldest not mine.’ That his words.”
