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Pennsylvania Mother Charged After 16-Year-Old Son Found Weighing 26 Pounds

A Pennsylvania mother has been arrested after authorities accused her of failing to feed her teenage son. When Elisabet Estrada, 41, checked her 16-year-old son into the hospital in October, he weighed just 26 pounds. Workers described the boy as "very frail" and said he was "ravenously hungry" when he was admitted.

The teen, who police said is developmentally delayed and does not speak, gained more than two pounds in a single day, and weighed 45 pounds when he was discharged on December 2. Medical personnel at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center told police that the emaciated teen suffered from medical neglect and that his mother failed to feed him appropriately.

Officers went to Estrada's home and she was taken into custody. They said that her three other children appeared to healthy and showed no signs of malnutrition or neglect. She was charged with one count of aggravated assault and two counts of endangering the welfare of children. Her bail was set at $25,000, but she remains locked up after failing to post bond. 

Her neighbors were shocked to learn that she had neglected her son. 

"I hope they keep her in jail honestly," Dean Kakaziotis, her neighbor, told WPMT. "That's crazy that you can neglect your own child, but then the other children are ok, how does that work?"

Photo: Chambersburg Police Department