Woman arrested for child neglect
A 34-year-old Key Largo woman was arrested Saturday on child neglect charges after the Sheriff’s Office found her and her four children living in deplorable conditions.
Ashley Joelle Connolly was charged with four counts of child neglect.
The case began at approximately 7:46 a.m. Saturday when Deputies responded to an RV on Ocean Bay Drive regarding a man not breathing. Paramedics also responded and declared Kyle Franklin Rohman, 32, dead at the scene. He was found on a bed in the rear bedroom of the RV. There were syringes and other drug paraphernalia such as spoons as well as a used NARCAN container in the bedroom.
Autopsy results are pending.
Aslo in the RV were four children, ages 13, 7, 6 and 2.
Deputies and Detectives noted deporable living conditions inside the RV. The children were living on makeshift bunk beds made of plywood. There was no running water in the house, thus no working toilet or shower/bathtub. The sink was full of rotting food and dirty dishes as was the refrigerator. Bugs infested the RV, which smelled of urine. The children were unbathed and in worn and dirty clothes.
The Florida Department of Children and Families was notified. The children were placed in the care of family friends.
Connolly told Detective Darnell Durham that she and her husband, Rohman, were injecting heroin at 4 a.m. Connolly stated Rohman woke up at some point and injected more heroin. Connolly stated she smoked marijuana at that time. Rohman became unresponsive sometime thereafter. Connolly stated he tried to revive Rohman using CPR and NARCAN before calling 911.
Detective Durham noted all this took place in the presence of all four children who sleep approximately four feet away from the bed in confined living quarters.
Connolly was taken to jail.
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I live across the street from the place where the man OD’ed and died. I reported that they lived in those deplorable conditions in the RV more than a year ago. No one did anything. Also, two ladies brought them bags of free food every week; did they report? Did they do anything? Patricia Murphy is the owner of the house where the RV that housed the family was parked. Mr. & Mrs. Murphy live in the house on the property and must have known what was going on. Did she not report anything? Mrs. Murphy and her husband are caretakers for special needs children. Should they be allowed to continue making an income from the state in light of their negligence? I feel that she and her husband should be held culpable for the conditions In which these poor children lived. Additionally, I watched the teenage daughter, the oldest of the four neglected children, go in and out of Mrs. Murphy’s house every day, at will. I spoke with the Sheriff’s office after the father/husband died, and they said nothing was done because all of the reports (many reports from other neighbors) were made to Code Compliance, not the Sheriff’s Department. Couldn’t they share information in a case such as this one? This was extremely disturbing and unnecessary.
Debora Parks
626.824.9969
That email commentary was in reference to a death by overdose that occurred in Key Largo on August 22, 2020.