A tragic and frightening case has come to a close in Georgia, with a father guilty of the cruel killing of his 4-year-old daughter, who died from excessive hunger and abuse.
Rodney McWeay was found guilty by a Fulton County jury on all 14 charges related to the horrific assault and death of child Treasure McWeay. The charges include malice murder, criminal murder, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and child maltreatment, among others.
The trial revealed harrowing details of a life filled with suffering behind closed doors. Prosecutors described McWeay’s home as a “house of horrors,” where Treasure and her two brothers were subjected to relentless abuse and starvation from May 2021 until December 2023.
Treasure weighed only 24 pounds at the time of her death, barely half the average weight for a healthy child her age. She had almost no water in her system and was pronounced dead at Hughes Spalding Children’s Hospital on December 11, 2023.
Police responded to McWeay’s home after a call about an unresponsive child. Though McWeay was absent when officers arrived, his two sons were discovered suffering from severe malnutrition and were also hospitalized.
The evidence produced in court reflected a negative picture of McWeay’s parenting. He kept his children in a solitary room and only let them out with his explicit consent. His residence lacked food and appropriate clothing for children, but it did have many surveillance cameras directed straight at their beds.
Deputy District Attorney Marshal Hodge explained to jurors, “He controlled everything, so no one got in — not even law enforcement. Until Treasure died.”
Social services briefly intervened in June 2023, removing the children from the home. But just a week later, McWeay reportedly traveled to Maryland, took their mother’s car, and returned to Georgia with the children, violating their custody order.
McWeay stayed on the run until detectives monitoring his residence discovered and arrested him around two weeks after his daughter died. In court, he remained impassive as the jury delivered their decision.
His defense attorney claimed that McWeay made “wrong decisions” but never intended to harm his children. However, the jury viewed things differently.
This heartbreaking story highlights the crucial significance of child welfare oversight and how system errors can occasionally result in disaster. Rodney McWeay is anticipated to spend the rest of his life in prison, with his sentence likely to reflect the gravity of his offenses.
