Police said six children were left alone for about 12 hours, and one of them, a 1-year-old, later died.
DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. — A Douglasville mother is being held without bond after police said they found six children alone in a home for about 12 hours, including a 1-year-old who died, in a case that has shaken neighbors and prompted a broader death investigation.
Authorities said Sherry Magby, 37, faces six counts of second-degree cruelty to children after officers responding to a late-March cardiac arrest call found a home in severe disorder and young children without food. Investigators have said more charges could follow as they continue to examine the child’s death, the living conditions inside the house and whether earlier warning signs were missed.
Police said officers were sent to the home on James D. Simpson Avenue in late March after a report of a child in cardiac arrest. By the time officers entered, the emergency call had already turned into a wider investigation. The county coroner later confirmed the death of the 1-year-old. Inside the house, officers reported a foul odor and what they described as unsanitary living conditions throughout the residence. Investigators said they found a 10-year-old child supervising younger siblings ages 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8. Police said the children had been left alone for about 12 hours. According to investigators, the oldest child told officers that the 1-year-old had been eating ants and cockroaches. Arrest warrants cited by local news outlets said the children were left without adequate food and without suitable living conditions.
The allegations quickly widened beyond the death itself. Police said every room in the house was in disarray, adding to concerns about how long the children had been living in those conditions. The surviving children were all age 10 or younger. Neighbors told reporters they often saw the children outside playing, but did not often see their mother. One neighbor said the case was heartbreaking and said the children would have been fed had anyone nearby known they were going hungry. Ken Howell, who works with a community outreach center only a short distance from the home, said help was close by. “All they had to do was come down here. We could have helped them get food,” Howell said in an interview with WSB-TV. Howell said he was stunned to learn a child had died so close to a place that regularly serves families in need. What remains unclear is exactly when the children were last fed, how long the reported living conditions had existed and what the final cause of death will be.
The case has also drawn attention because of Magby’s earlier criminal case. WSB-TV reported that she had previously been accused of stabbing one of her children in the back with a pocketknife in 2023 and that she was out on bond in that case when this latest investigation began. The station reported she was also scheduled to go to trial next month in that earlier matter. That history has raised new questions about how the family was being monitored and whether any agencies had prior contact with the household. So far, police have publicly outlined only the facts tied to the late-March call and the conditions officers said they found on arrival. Investigators have not yet publicly released a medical examiner’s final ruling on how the 1-year-old died, and they have not announced whether felony murder, homicide or other charges will be added. The absence of those findings has left a major part of the case unresolved even as the child-cruelty charges move ahead.
For people who live near the house, the case has become a story about proximity to help and the painful gap between need and intervention. Howell said his outreach center exists to support people in the neighborhood and that he could not understand how a family so close by went without food. A church also sits near the home, and neighbors said the mother could have sought help there as well. Those reactions have added a layer of sorrow to a case already defined by stark police allegations. Residents described the situation as hard to talk about, especially because the children were visible in the neighborhood before the investigation became public. In the days after the charges were announced, the focus remained on the unanswered questions: how a group of children that young was left alone that long, whether anyone outside the home knew how bad conditions had become and what investigators will say once the death inquiry is complete.
The case now stands at two tracks at once: a pending child-cruelty prosecution and an active death investigation. Magby remained jailed without bond as of April 8, and police said additional charges may still be filed after investigators complete the next phase of the case.
Author note: Last updated April 9, 2026.