FENTRESS COUNTY, Tenn. (WATE) — Two parents who were arrested last year in Fentress County following a Department of Child Services investigation have pleaded guilty to aggravated child abuse and neglect and been sentenced.
Jason and Jessica Klimp pleaded guilty on Monday after a child was found severely malnourished last year. The two were sentenced to serve a total of 10 years with no chance of parole, according to District Attorney Jared Effler. In addition, the court issued a permanent restraining order forbidding them from contacting the minor victims.
In February, first responders went to the Klimp’s home after one of their eight children collapsed while walking outside in below-freezing temperatures, the Klimps reportedly said. The responders took her to the hospital.
The 12-year-old was so malnourished and underdeveloped that she looked to be six, court documents said. Investigators reportedly found that she had only been fed pureed food because she “couldn’t keep regular food down or that she simply did not want to eat at all.”
The girl and her sister had been adopted by the Klimps in 2016. According to a DCS investigation, the sisters were forced to sleep in plastic totes in the 60-degree basement without covers as punishment for wetting the bed. The sister was also malnourished, a doctor reported.
6 News also spoke to the biological mother of the girls.
“The state of Michigan took these two and placed them in these people’s care,” she said. “They were suppose to take care of them and they chose not to.”