Parents Charged with Murder of 4-Year-Old Son Who Starved to Death While Living in Feces-Covered Apartment

• Nytavia Ragsdale, 26, and Laron Modlin, 25, are facing murder charges after their 4-year-old son Jah’Meik Modlin starved to death in a New York City apartment
• The boy weighed just 19 pounds when he died and had been “actively starved” over the course of two years, according to court documents and statements, per the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office
• “The death of Jah’Meik Modlin, an innocent 4-year-old child, is a tragedy that has scarred this city,” District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. said

A couple accused of starving their 4-year-old son to death over the course of two years in Harlem, New York City, and keeping their children in a feces-covered apartment, are facing murder charges.

On Wednesday, Nov. 6, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. confirmed Nytavia Ragsdale, 26, and Laron Modlin, 25, had been indicted after their son Jah’Meik Modlin died at around 5:50 a.m. local time on Oct. 14, 2024, per a press release. 

He weighed approximately 19 pounds when he died and had suffered from malnutrition, dehydration, and starvation and “had almost no body fat,” according to the release.

The pair — who have also been accused of abusing their three other children aged 5, 6 and 7 — have been “charged in a New York State indictment with Murder in the Second Degree, four counts of Assault in the First Degree, Manslaughter in the Second Degree, Criminally Negligent Homicide and four counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child,” per the release.

According to documents and statements made on the record in court, per the release, Modlin had called 911 at approximately 7:42 p.m. on Oct. 13, claiming that the victim was non-responsive. Jah’Meik was “taken to the hospital and was given end of life care,” until he died in the early hours of the morning the following day, authorities said.

When Jah’Meik and his siblings arrived at the hospital, they had “layers of dirt on their skin and feces matted in their hair,” per the release.

Authorities said Ragsdale and Modlin “actively starved their children for approximately two years while purchasing food for themselves on a daily basis.”

The apartment the family lived in was said to have had a “working refrigerator that contained fresh produce,” but the door was facing the wall so the kids couldn’t open it.

“Any cabinet containing food had a zip tie on the handle,” the release added. 

One of the three bedrooms in the property was “covered in feces,” officials said, adding that “the floor could not be seen through the amount of dirt and excrement on the floor. The walls were smeared with feces to the approximate height of a child.”

Court documents stated that the room in question was the only one with a lock and it was “placed on the outside, allowing someone to lock an individual inside of the room.”

“The only other items in the room were a few pieces of broken furniture, as well as a mattress, propped on its side and covered in feces,” authorities added, per the release.

The kids were not in school and hadn’t seen a doctor in over two years, according to the documents, and their parents limited communication with friends and family members to phone or video chats to “hide” each of the kids’ “deteriorating conditions.”

Jah’Meik’s siblings “remain hospitalized for malnutrition,” have “displayed very limited fine motor skills, and were incapable of holding any utensils or of feeding themselves,” the release said, but these abilities have been starting to return as nutrients have been introduced to their diets.

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District Attorney Bragg said, per the press release, “The death of Jah’Meik Modlin, an innocent four-year-old child, is a tragedy that has scarred this city. That he died a slow and painful death, starving alongside his older siblings, somehow isolated in the heart of Harlem, is a stain on our collective conscience.”

“Today his parents are indicted for allegedly killing him through extreme physical neglect and persistent abuse with depraved indifference for his life,” Bragg added. 

“Our Child Abuse Bureau is working diligently to secure justice for Jah’Meik and to support his three siblings during this immensely difficult process,” he said.

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.