MPD: Shoeless toddlers left outside in the rain while parents slept; 2 arrested for neglect

EDITOR’S NOTE: As of 5 p.m. Thursday, a booking photo has not been made available for Julia Brogdon. Her mugshot will be added to the article once it is released.

MUNCIE, Ind. — Police say two Muncie parents were asleep in bed while their two young children were left alone outside without shoes on as rain poured down and cars drove by.

Sean Sharpe, 38, and Julia Brogdon, 35, were arrested this week and preliminarily charged with three counts of neglect of a dependent each. The charges stem from an investigation into two toddlers who were outside wandering around and crossing the street without a parent.

Muncie police were called around 10 a.m. Thursday to a home on E. 16th Street after children, estimated to be around 3 years old, were seen outside without shoes on.

Officers arrived and learned that the two children were now being watched by a social worker at a nearby school. They found that the children were both “soaking wet,” indicating they had been left outside in the rain “for a while.”

Police responded to a nearby home believed to be where the children lived and found that the back door was wide open. Officers reportedly found another young child standing outside the back door who was “soaked in urine.”

Officers attempted to make contact with an adult inside the home for approximately 24 minutes before entering through the back. They then looked to see if any more children were inside before searching for the parents.

While walking through the house, officers allegedly gave “loud verbal commands” and identified themselves as police. In the last room that they checked, officers found Sharpe and Brogdon lying asleep on a bed and shined flashlights in their faces.

The couple appeared to have been asleep and “completely unaware” officers were inside before the bedroom door opened. Both of them were asked where their children were. While Sharpe reportedly said he did not know, Brogdon said she thought they were asleep.

Sharpe told officers that he takes precautions to not let the children roam out of the house, such as locking several doors and installing an alarm. However, the alarm’s batteries had reportedly run out two weeks earlier and not been replaced.

Meanwhile, Brogdon was found to already have an active warrant in Delaware County for child neglect. Both parents were arrested and booked into the Delaware County Jail on three counts of neglect of a dependent each, one for each child found.

Sharpe is now being held on a $15,000 bond while Brogdon is being held on a $20,000 bond.