Police say the case began with a 2024 hospital report of a possible miscarriage and led to indictments more than a year later.
BOONEVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky couple was charged in February with reckless homicide after state police said an infant was found dead outside their home in Owsley County following a 911 call in November 2024 about a possible miscarriage.
The case drew attention because the arrests came after a long gap between the discovery of the infant and the filing of charges. Kentucky State Police said Deeann Bennett, 27, and Charles Bennett, 32, were indicted by an Owsley County grand jury in January 2026, then arrested on Feb. 9. Investigators have not publicly released the infant’s cause of death, the autopsy findings, or other details that would explain why prosecutors chose reckless homicide charges instead of a different count.
According to state police, the investigation began just before 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 29, 2024, when troopers with Post 7 in Richmond got a 911 call involving a woman who had been taken to a local hospital after reporting what police described as a “possible miscarriage.” Authorities later identified her as Deeann Bennett. Police said that while officers were at the hospital, the couple told them the infant was still at their residence on Lewis Lane in Booneville, a small community in the hills of eastern Kentucky. Troopers and detectives then went to the property. In a written statement, Public Affairs Officer Justin Kearney said they found “an unresponsive infant over an embankment outside the home.” Owsley County Coroner Rob Morgan pronounced the infant dead at the scene, police said.
Investigators have released only a narrow set of facts about what happened next. The infant’s body was taken to the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office in Frankfort for an autopsy, but the state police statement did not say whether the examination found signs of injury, how long the infant had been outside, or whether the child had been born alive. Those missing details matter because they leave large parts of the timeline unresolved in public view. Police have also not described what evidence led a grand jury to return indictments more than a year later. On first reference, the charges split this way: Deeann Bennett is accused of reckless homicide, tampering with physical evidence, abuse of a corpse and concealing the birth of an infant; Charles Bennett is accused of reckless homicide and concealing the birth of an infant. Both were booked into the Three Forks Regional Jail.
Booneville sits in Owsley County, one of Kentucky’s smaller and more rural counties, where serious criminal investigations can move slowly as agencies wait on forensic testing, medical examiner findings and grand jury review. In this case, the public record described by police shows a long span between the first emergency call and the arrests: from late November 2024 to early February 2026. State police said the work was led by Detective Anthony Bowling of KSP Post 7, with help from other state police personnel and the Owsley County Coroner’s Office. That timeline suggests investigators treated the matter as more than a routine unattended death from the start, but officials have not publicly outlined what interviews, records or forensic results shaped the final charging decision. The absence of that explanation leaves neighbors and the wider public with a case defined mostly by the scene, the charges and a short state police narrative.
The legal path appears to have moved in stages. Kentucky State Police said the Owsley County grand jury issued indictments on Jan. 22, 2026, and that both defendants were arrested Feb. 9. Local television reporting at the time said they were being held at the Three Forks Regional Jail awaiting arraignment. A local docket report later listed both Deeann Bennett and Charles Bennett for arraignment on March 2 in Owsley County, though the sources reviewed here did not include a full public account of what happened in court that day or whether pleas were entered. That leaves the next formal milestones unclear in publicly available reports. The major unanswered questions remain the same: what the autopsy found, how prosecutors believe the infant died, what role each defendant is alleged to have played and whether additional court filings will spell out the evidence in more detail.
The known facts are stark, and the language used by authorities has helped shape public reaction. Kearney’s description of an infant found outside the home, below an embankment, turned a short police release into a case with disturbing imagery and obvious emotional weight. At the same time, investigators have kept back much of the evidence that would explain the scene. That gap has made each official phrase carry more force than usual. News accounts repeated the same core points: a hospital report, a residence on Lewis Lane, an infant found outside and charges filed after more than a year. For now, the public record contains no extended statement from either defendant, no defense response quoted in the reports reviewed, and no fuller narrative from prosecutors. Until that changes, the case stands in a familiar early posture for a felony prosecution: severe allegations, sparse facts and a court process still taking shape.
As of March 15, 2026, the case remains at an early stage publicly, with the Bennetts charged and earlier reports pointing to a March 2 arraignment listing. The next milestone will likely be a court filing or hearing that explains the evidence and sets the schedule for the case.
Author note: Last updated March 15, 2026.