A Griffin couple accused of attempted murder and child cruelty after their emaciated 10-year-old son was found wandering the neighborhood are scheduled to appear in court for a bond hearing Tuesday morning, officials said.
No additional details have been released about the case, which Spalding County officials announced at an emotional news conference Wednesday, but neighbors and public information online have revealed an outward life that appeared to be business as usual for Tyler and Krista Schindley.
The Schindleys were taken into custody May 12, the same day neighbors saw their son walking on the street and asked if he needed help. The boy, who weighed 36 pounds, or about half the weight of a typical 10-year-old, said he was hungry and asked not to be sent back to his parents, according to Spalding County District Attorney Marie Broder.
Tyler Schindley, 46, turned himself in at the Griffin Police Department hours after the child was found, Broder said. Krista Schindley, 47, was arrested at the couple’s home. Both were booked into the Spalding jail, where they remain ahead of their bond hearing at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
According to their warrants, the Schindleys are accused of crimes that took place between May 2020 and their arrests. Officials did not say for how long they believe the alleged abuse occurred, and the Schindleys’ son has not completed a forensic interview with investigators as he recovers in the hospital.
The couple had four other children at home at the time of their arrest, Broder said. They were placed in the custody of the Georgia Department of Health’s Division of Family and Children Services.
Neighbors said they feel guilty for not realizing something was amiss at the Schindley home, but it appears there were few signs for outsiders to notice. The Schindleys homeschooled their children, and it is not clear if DFCS agents ever opened a case involving the family.
“DHS/DFCS is bound by both state and federal law to protect the privacy of the people we serve,” a spokeswoman told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution after multiple inquiries. “As such, we are unable to comment on the specifics of any reported abuse or neglect cases. We take seriously every report made to the department and work with law enforcement when appropriate to ensure the safety of Georgia’s children.”
“My wife, it just tears her up,” Michael Seigler, one of the couple’s neighbors, told Channel 2 Action News.
“We thought he was about 6,” Seigler said about the boy. “We didn’t know how old he is. The little boy just stayed to himself. They were very quiet people. I say, very private.”
If they were quiet in person, Tyler Schindley was not shy about promoting the couple’s business on Facebook. The Schindleys operated two franchises of True Rest Float Spa, a chain that offers sensory deprivation therapy, in Peachtree City and McDonough.
According to the state’s corporate registry, Krista Schindley is the registered agent for the LLCs that franchised the spa locations. Tyler Schindley regularly posted online about the business for years, including earlier this month.
After the couple’s arrest, True Rest shared a statement saying the company’s owners were “horrified and shocked by the news about the Schindleys.”
“This operations team has been replaced,” the company said.
Officials said they expect a lengthy investigation into the Schindleys, and few details are likely to be made public due to privacy concerns.
For those looking for clues as to how the case might play out, there was another major case of child starvation in the metro Atlanta area in recent years. A Hall County girl, Kylie Mickens, was 5 years old when she died of malnourishment and dehydration due to medical neglect. She weighed just under 8 pounds at the time of her death.
Her parents, Porscha and Jerrail Mickens, were charged with second-degree murder and multiple counts of child cruelty. Their daughter was born with a chromosomal deficiency that made it difficult for her to eat and drink, the couple’s attorney said in their defense. Kylie suffered from 1p36 deletion syndrome, a rare disorder that typically causes severe intellectual disability, weak muscle tone and trouble swallowing.
Despite the child’s health complications, Hall District Attorney Lee Darragh told the AJC, “This was one of the most egregious cases of child neglect that I’ve ever seen in a long time in prosecution.”
Jerrail Mickens died in a motorcycle crash while the case was still open, but Porscha Mickens pleaded guilty to the charges April 25, 2022. Darragh’s team recommended a 25-year prison sentence, but the judge disagreed and chose not to sentence her to prison. Instead, she was sentenced to 20 years on probation.
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