'He felt cold': Mother who starved 13-year-old son until he was 'just skin and bones' to go away for decades

A Tennessee parent who starved her 13-year-old lad until helium was "just tegument and bones" successful a location of squalor has learned her fate.

Cheyenne Maddox was sentenced connected Wednesday to 20 years successful situation and is not eligible for parole, Nashville-based ABC affiliate WKRN reported. She was convicted successful October 2025 of reckless homicide and aggravated kid maltreatment successful the decease of Kadaris Maddox, tribunal records reviewed by Law&Crime state.

First responders arrived astatine Maddox's location connected Virginia Terrace successful Clarksville connected the day of July 6, 2022, to a chilling scene. The location was successful disarray, with officers stating determination was truthful overmuch trash strewn astir that they could not interaction the floor, according to Clarksville Now. Kadaris' chamber was astir empty, with lone a mattress, pillow, comforter, drying rack, and physics instrumentality inside. In the gait was a wheelchair that a detective described arsenic "weathered."

Kadaris was pronounced dead, the Clarksville Police Department said erstwhile announcing the apprehension of the then-32-year-old parent the adjacent month.

Prosecutors said Kadaris weighed 47 pounds the past clip helium visited a doctor, and erstwhile helium died, his value had dropped to 35 pounds. Clarksville constabulary serviceman Joshua Clegg reported being the archetypal patrol serviceman connected the scene, saying respective children led him onto the spot and that erstwhile helium entered the home, helium recovered Maddox holding a kid covered successful a purple comforter.

He was "just tegument and bones," Clegg testified of Kadaris, according to Clarksville Now. "He didn't person a pulse," Clegg continued, adding, "When I reached down and was checking connected his ribs, there, helium felt cold."

Kadaris was calved with cerebral palsy, per WKRN, but 1 of his doctors stated that helium was cognitively intact and optimistic astir his future.

As Law&Crime previously reported, Cheyenne Maddox was initially charged with 5 counts of aggravated kid neglect due to the fact that of the surviving conditions of the different kids. She was aboriginal charged with sidesplitting Kadaris.

"He died of malnutrition and helium died of starvation," Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Mary O'Connor said successful court, according to the Nashville station. "It was astir [as] if his tegument was wrapped astir his bones."

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A memorial was held for Kadaris successful November 2022. Dawn Maddox, Cheyenne's parent and Kadaris' grandmother, told Clarksville Now that "there was a batch of radical that loved him due to the fact that helium brought truthful overmuch joyousness into the world," per WKRN. "Just to look astatine him, erstwhile helium smiled, his eyes, helium conscionable lit up a room. An angel was taken the time helium passed away."

Before she was sentenced, Cheyenne Maddox reportedly told the tribunal that "I cognize present and privation I could spell backmost and alteration truthful galore things and commercialized places truthful that helium was present with his siblings, and it was me." She added: "It's my negligence that led to everything, and I clasp myself accountable for that."