Browns Summit, North Carolina — A 40-year-old North Carolina mother is behind bars after neighbors heard her children screaming for help and rushed inside to find a deeply disturbing scene involving alleged physical abuse, starvation conditions and what authorities described as an extremely unsanitary living environment.
Sabrina Lauren Spruill, of Browns Summit, a community located just northeast of Greensboro, was taken into custody Tuesday following a 911 call from concerned neighbors who could hear the children, aged 4, 7 and 8, crying out in distress from inside the home on Caseybrook Court.
When neighbors entered the residence, they witnessed Spruill allegedly choking and holding down the children at separate times. According to a statement of probable cause, she had also reportedly poured hot wax directly onto the heads and necks of all three children. Spruill allegedly claimed she was trying to remove the devil from them during the incident.
Deputies from the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office arrived and immediately noted the home was in an extremely filthy and unsanitary condition. All three children had visible marks and bruises on their necks, arms and legs, which investigators noted appeared consistent with prior and repeated abuse.
Perhaps most alarming to responding deputies was the state of the children’s basic needs. The refrigerator inside the home was locked and inaccessible, leaving no reachable food for the children. There was no bedding in the home, and the children appeared malnourished and unkempt.
The youngest child, just four years old, told officers directly that his mother needed to go to jail because she hits them.
Spruill had an existing open case with Child Protective Services at the time of her arrest and reportedly has a history of mental health concerns.
She now faces three counts each of child abuse, assault on a child under 12, strangulation and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, along with charges of communicating threats. She is currently held in Guilford County Jail on a bond of $75,500, with her next court appearance scheduled for July 30.
