Clay County, WV (WOAY) – West Virginia State Police arrest a second person in an alleged child abuse case in Clay County.
According to court documents, 36-year-old Jerri Ann Ferrebee is charged with child neglect resulting in injury and failure to report.
Since Ferrebee is employed by Clay County Schools as a special needs educator aid, troopers say that makes her a mandatory reporter of any physical abuse.
On Saturday, March 22, 2025, State Troopers arrested Timothy L. Ferrebee, father of the infant victim and charged him with child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury and strangulation. According to the criminal complaint, Timothy Ferrebee is the ex-husband and current boyfriend of Jerri Ann Ferrebee. The two live together in Clay County, WV.
According to the criminal complaint filed in Clay County Magistrate Court, Jerri Ann Ferrebee left the home on Friday March 21, 2025, for around 40 minutes to get soda. Troopers believes the 3-month-old was abused while Ms. Ferrebee was gone.
When Ms. Ferrebee returned to the home, troopers said when she changed the infant’s diaper she noticed “what she described as busted capillaries in the form of red marks on the infant’s stomach.” Ms. Ferrebee told troopers she asked Mr. Ferrebee where the marks on the baby came from but received no real answer.
“Ms. Ferrebee stated to this officer something to the effect of, ‘Lane, I always worried something like this would happen,”‘ Trooper C.A. Lane wrote in the criminal complaint.
Lane went on to say in the criminal complaint that Ms. Ferrebee remained a “trusted guardian” of the infant for the remainder of the night, which was approximately eight hours since she had observed the marks on the infant’s body.
The next afternoon the biological mother took custody of the infant from Ms. Ferrebee. Ferrebee told her the “baby is fussy and sick,” the complaint stated.
The mother took the baby to the emergency room at Summersville Regional Medical Center immediately.
“Further medical examination indicated physical abuse,” Lane said.
“Due to Ms. Ferrebee’s lack of response in identifying the marks on the 3-month-old infant’s body and reporting it to the appropriate authorities, Ms. Ferrebee is charged with gross child neglect resulting in serious bodily injury to the infant,” Lane said in the complaint. “This charge is the direct result of Ms. Ferrebee’s failure to act for approximately eight hours as the infant was experiencing prolonged loss or impairment of its bodily organs.”
Lane said the baby’s injuries as of Monday entailed damage to both lungs, air trapped in the thoracic cavity which resulted in major surgery, petechiae and a laceration on the infant’s esophagus which resulted in another surgery.
Troopers tell WOAY that the child is currently in a medically induced coma at Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown.
“Ms. Ferrebee is charged with failure to report due to her being a mandatory reporter, having the training knowledge and experience to identify the infant’s declining health and failure to report the marks indicative of trauma sustained or the infant’s declining condition to anyone,” the complaint noted.
Ms. Ferrebee was arraigned on Monday, March 24, 2025, before Clay County Magistrate Scott Bass. Her bond has been set at $55,000 cash.
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