Scott City woman faces endangerment charge

A Scott City woman who reported that her son was sexually abusing a 9-year-old girl living in her home now faces charges herself because of unsanitary conditions found during a visit by investigators.

Carolann E. Edger, 37, lives in a mobile home in KNR Estates mobile home park. She is charged with one count of felony child endangerment for having an unsanitary home and allowing her son to continue living there after she learned he was allegedly molesting the girl.

Friends and family, however, called the charges bogus and defended Edger as a single mother working hard to provide for her family.

Her son, James A. Edger, 19, is being held on $200,000 bond for statutory rape, child molestation and incest charges. He was arrested by Scott City police officers Friday morning attempting to run out of the mobile home park.

Following an investigative meeting about those charges, Scott City police officer Gina Cook and Missouri Children's Division worker Denise Jansen visited Edger's home.

"As I entered the residence, I was overwhelmed by the smell of feces and a horrific unexplainable stench," Cook wrote in a sworn statement filed with the charges against Carolann Edger.

There was no running water, Cook wrote, and the "entire residence" was filled covered in partially eaten food, dirty clothes, dirty dishes, mold and dirt. As she was taking pictures, Cook wrote, "I was overcome by fleas resulting in numerous bites to my body."

The girl, Cook said, had been sleeping on a splintered piece of wood attached to a plastic toddler's bed frame. There was no edible food in the house except for a partially eaten loaf of bread sitting on a cabinet amidst dirty dishes, a flea collar and a shoe.

The charges do not portray Carolann Edger's struggle to keep her family together and taken care of, said Mary Null, the child's grandmother, who lives nearby.

The exterior of the mobile home occupied by Carolann Edger was relatively neat. A swing set and bicycle were in the neatly mowed yard and trash was placed in garbage cans at the end of the older white and red mobile home.

A car sitting in the driveway was stuffed with household items, including a piece of carpeting.

"She is a very good person," Null said of Carolann Edger. "She is doing the best she could. Neighbors have pitched in to help her."

Null cited Edger's charity work, helping homeless people during the winter, as an example that she would not deliberately allow anyone living with her to be in danger.

The charges against James Edger are for incidents dating as far back as October 2003 and as late as last Thursday.

The child was questioned about James' actions by the Southeast Missouri Network Against Sexual Violence. They conducted a sexual abuse forensic examination.

Afterward, Jansen and Cook spoke with Carolann Edger, who said that James Edger was out of control and had threatened to kill her and the girl while they slept.

Asked why she allowed James Edger to remain in the home, Carolann Edger replied, "He's not like that anymore."

If convicted, Carolann Edger faces up to seven years in state prison. She had not been arrested on the charges as of Wednesday evening.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126