Couple charged with nearly starving child to death

Felony child abuse charges have been filed against a Greybull couple who nearly starved the woman’s 4-year-old son to death.
Tammy (Earl) Hannon, 24, the child’s biological mother, is facing a felony aggravated child abuse charge that carries a maximum sentence of up to 25 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $10,000.
Multiple counts were filed against her 36-year-old boyfriend, Ty Myers, including felony child abuse, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $10,000, as well as misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine) and violating the terms of his probation.  
While Myers is not the child’s biological father, he and Hannon have been together as a couple and lived together since November 2022, according to an affidavit filed March 5 by Greybull Police Chief Ken Blosser.  Hannon has five children in all — two of them (the oldest and a newborn) with Myers.
According to the affidavit, a Department of Family Services worker, Kristy Michaels, notified law enforcement on Feb. 16, 2024, that an “unresponsive and lifeless” child had been brought to the Three Rivers Health emergency room. ER personnel described the child as being on the verge of death — “literally skin and bones and no muscle on his body.” He appeared severely malnourished, weighed 18 pounds and was unable to lift his head.  Soon thereafter, the child was life-flighted to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City.
Hannon, who had brought the child to the emergency room, told medical staff that the child began losing weight about two months earlier, but did not seek medical help. She later told a sergeant with the University of Utah Police Department that on Feb. 15, she had been home with her children, all of whom were playing and acting normally, when the child “tripped on a toy and hit his head on the floor.”  She said she monitored him for about 90 minutes and he appeared to be fine, but the next morning, she found him unresponsive. She summoned her mother Nicole, who resides in Basin, and they took the child to the ER.
Dr. Margaret Russell, a child abuse pediatric fellow at Primary Children’s Hospital, disputed Hannon’s account in a Feb. 19 interview with investigators, saying “there was no way he could have been playing or otherwise active” on Feb. 15.
Upon arrival at the hospital, the child “presented with shock, dangerously high levels of sodium, extremely low oxygen levels resulting in respiratory failure, acute kidney injury, cachetic (severely malnourished as exhibited by obvious loss of muscle and fat mass) and had a subdural hemato-hygroma,” said Russell.  
She continued that the child “had pressure sores along his back, shoulder blades and buttocks, which indicated that he had, for an appreciable period of time, been unable to move or change positions due to his severe malnutrition.”
In conclusion, she said “there was no medical condition that led to (the child’s) condition except dehydration and starvation.”  The child was administered medications and electrolytes intravenously and placed on a ventilator because he was unable to breathe on his own due to his debilitated and life-threatening condition.
When questioned by case workers in Salt Lake City, Hannon said the child had previously been seen by staff at clinics in the Big Horn Basin, including Three Rivers Health. Greybull Police Chief Ken Blosser, who compiled the affidavit, said Michaels told him she contacted all the area clinics.  None had records indicating that the child (or for that matter, any of Hannon’s children) had ever been treated.
According to the affidavit, caseworkers in Salt Lake City said Hannon told them the child began to lose weight in January 2024, but that she did not seek medical help.  At the time of the interview, Hannon “was on her cellphone with Myers, who was very disruptive and demanding that Hannon record all contacts with medical staff and others and to not speak to them.”  A nurse later told the caseworker that Hannon did not seem to be interested in the health or care of her son.
The affidavit filed by Blosser also includes interviews with Hannon’s father, Curt Earl, who described the child as looking “a little Ethiopian” when he saw him a month earlier.  Earl went on to say he would let his grandson eat whatever he wanted when he visited his home.  “He ate up a storm,” he told Blosser. Earl said he encouraged Hannon to take her son to see a doctor; she told him it was due to a “high metabolism,” but did not provide any evidence that the child was suffering from a metabolic disorder.
Earl also stated that it appeared that Hannon and Myers were harsher with the child than they were with his siblings, sometimes requiring him to stand at the wall for long periods of time.  He believed it was because the child resembled his biological father and did not look like the others. He also stated that he noticed the child starting to lose weight and act differently after Hannon and Myers got back together in November 2022.
Dr. Russell, in a Feb. 22 medical report, said the child’s weight of 18 pounds was the equivalent of an 8-month-old infant and that his life-threatening condition at the time could only be explained by “caloric restriction resulting in starvation.”  She cited hair thinning and hair loss, significant loss of body fat, markedly decreased muscle mass, severe and life-threatening electrolyte imbalance which was threatening his vital organs.”  She ruled out “underlying and metabolic conditions.”
In addition, Russell said the physical harm from the starvation resulted in severe loss of brain volume, or cerebral atrophy, which “can result in permanent problems with thinking, memory and performing everyday tasks,” wrote Russell. She added it’s likely to be “irreversible.”  
“The systematic and chronic abuse endured by (the child) at the hands of his caregivers resulted in (the child’s) prolonged suffering, body dysfunction and near-fatal physical harm,” she’s quoted as saying in the affidavit. “This condition, coupled with multiple forms of psychological abuse, which results from systematic and prolonged starvation, meets the definition of torture.”  
At the time of the statement, Russell said the child was receiving occupational, physical and feeding therapies.  She said the child also had behavioral and sleep concerns and was being treated by behavioral health providers at the hospital.
The affidavit adds that while executing a search warrant at the Greybull home belonging to Hannon and Myers, investigators found a working area to make glass pipes commonly used in the  use and ingestion of controlled substances (most commonly methamphetamine), a plastic straw referred to as a “tooter” in a bag belonging to Myers and a substance on it that tested presumptive positive for methamphetamine.
Blosser said he personally observed “two freezers, a refrigerator and a pantry, all full of food.”
Blosser also interviewed Hannon’s mother, Nicole Earl, and her sister, Laura Earl.  Nicole Earl said her daughter repeatedly tried to reach her on the morning she found her child unresponsive and expressed reservations about taking the child to the hospital, fearing he would be taken away from her.
The latter said she, too, noticed that Hannon and Myers appeared to treat the child much more harshly than his siblings. She reported witnessing them denying the child food while the others were eating and later described Myers as “very controlling” and someone who would “freak out” when Hannon talked to someone on the telephone.
The probation violation charge against Myers stems from the events of Feb. 23, 2024, the day he was terminated by his employer. The affidavit states that he travelled to Salt Lake City, without the permission of his probation agent, and that he and Hannon were seen leaving the hospital.
They were arrested March 1 in Riverton and are currently in the Big Horn County Jail.
Bond has been set at $250,000 for Hannon and $105,000 for Myers.