SUMTER, SC (WBTW) – The Sumter County Sheriff’s Office says a woman who moved to Sumter from Louisiana and was arrested for child neglect for not taking her 7-year-old granddaughter to the hospital after she suffered a severe burn has been re-arrested on a warrant for child abuse out of Louisiana.
Ken Bell with the sheriff’s office says Jaqueline Raysor, 55, of Sumter, moved to the area on April 19 with two children, a 7-year-old girl and 9-year-old boy. She took her 7-year-old granddaughter to the KershawHealth Medical Center in Camden for treatment two days later. The hospital notified Kershaw authorities when they suspected child abuse, who then notified the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.
The young girl suffered what investigators described as an “immersion burn” such as would be suffered from having her foot immersed in scalding water. The 7-year-old underwent surgery on Monday at Palmetto Children’s Hospital in Columbia where surgeons grafted skin onto her foot. They now say they are optimistic they can save her foot. Her condition has been upgraded to stable, Bell confirms.
In addition to the severe burn to her foot, the girl also showed signs of having been beaten with various bruises and other marks on her body, investigators report. Both children have been taken into emergency protective custody.
Raysor claims to be the children’s grandmother and said her own daughter, the children’s mother, is deceased. She reportedly came to Sumter to reunite with the children’s grandfather.
Sumter authorities had grounds to charge the woman because she admitted moving to Sumter on Tuesday although she did not seek medical treatment for the child until Thursday night, says Bell. Medical personnel determined the injury happened before Tuesday.
Raysor, was granted a $75,000 bond on the charge of unlawful conduct to a child in Sumter. Hours after Raysor posted bond, Louisiana investigators posted a warrant for Raysor’s arrest on child abuse charges involving the injured girl’s 9-year-old brother.
After talking with the girl’s 9-year-old brother, investigators determined that he also had been a victim of child abuse. It appears that he was also beaten with a belt and an electrical extension cord, Bell states.
Sumter County Sheriff’s Office Investigators have located relatives of both children and discovered the relatives had been searching for the children since 2013. It is still unclear how Raysor was able to take the children and whether or not she has been granted legal custody, according to officials.
Raysor has the right to an extradition hearing, Bell says. Should she waive that right, she will be held in jail in Sumter until Louisiana authorities pick her up.
