Georgia police arrest 2 in starvation of infant

PEACHTREE CORNERS, Ga. - A man and his 23-year-old daughter have been arrested outside Atlanta after the man's infant daughter starved to death and three other children and a disabled adult were found to be severely malnourished, police said Friday.

The man brought his 15-month-old daughter to a hospital late Tuesday night, but she was already dead, Gwinnett County police said in a news release. The girl's appearance led medical personnel to believe she was mistreated.

At a motel in Peachtree Corners where the man was living, police found the infant's mother, a 21-year-old woman weighing only 59 pounds, wrapped in blankets on the floor. They also found three other children, ages 5, 3 and 3, who were severely malnourished, police said.

The man fathered one of the 3-year-olds with the 21-year-old woman and the other 3-year-old and 5-year-old with his adult daughter, said Gwinnett County police Cpl. Jake Smith.

The man, 44, ordered his daughter to deprive the children and the 21-year-old woman of food if they were disobedient, police said. The Gwinnett County Medical Examiner said the infant died of starvation.

The man and his 23-year-old daughter face charges including felony and malice murder, cruelty to children, and cruelty to a physically disabled adult. The man was also charged with rape, incest and aggravated sodomy of his daughter.

The Associated Press does not identify possible victims of sexual crimes, and isn't naming the man because that could identify the daughter.

The three surviving children and the 21-year-old woman all required medical attention. The three children have been placed in state custody and the woman was in the hospital in serious condition, police said.

Officers found literature and paraphernalia for the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors in the apartment, but it was not clear whether that had anything to do with the alleged criminal activity, Smith said.

The Nuwaubian religious sect was founded by Dwight "Malachi" York, who established a compound in central Georgia's Putnam County, where many of his followers came to live on a tract of land dotted with faux-Egyptian pyramids and obelisks. York was convicted in 2004 of racketeering, money laundering and having sex with the children of his followers. He is serving a 135-year federal prison sentence.

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