The arrests came more than a year after troopers say the couple reported a possible miscarriage and directed police to their Lewis Lane residence.
BOONEVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky couple has been charged in the death of an infant after state police said officers responding to a reported possible miscarriage in November 2024 found the baby unresponsive over an embankment outside the pair’s home in Owsley County.
Deeann Bennett, 27, and Charles Bennett, 32, were arrested Feb. 9, 2026, after a yearlong investigation and grand jury indictments issued Jan. 22. Both were charged with reckless homicide and concealing the birth of an infant. Deeann Bennett also was charged with tampering with physical evidence and abuse of a corpse. The case drew attention because investigators say the inquiry began at a hospital, then shifted back to the couple’s rural Booneville property, where troopers said they found the infant dead outside the home.
According to Kentucky State Police, the case began just before 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 29, 2024, when Post 7 in Richmond received a 911 call about a woman taken to a local hospital after reporting a possible miscarriage. While at the hospital, investigators said, the couple told authorities that the infant remained at their residence on Lewis Lane in Booneville. Troopers and detectives then went to the home. There, police said, they found an unresponsive infant over an embankment outside the residence. Owsley County Coroner Rob Morgan pronounced the child dead at the scene, and the body was sent to the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office in Frankfort for an autopsy. The state police release did not say how old the infant was, whether the baby had been born alive, or what the autopsy concluded about the cause and manner of death.
The charges announced in February 2026 marked the first public criminal counts in the case. State police said Deeann Bennett, of Booneville, was arrested on reckless homicide, tampering with physical evidence, abuse of a corpse and concealing the birth of an infant. Charles Bennett, also of Booneville, was arrested on reckless homicide and concealing the birth of an infant. Both were lodged in the Three Forks Regional Jail after their arrests. Police have not publicly released a detailed affidavit describing what evidence led the grand jury to indict the couple more than a year after the infant was found. They also have not publicly described what each defendant is accused of doing, beyond the charges themselves. That leaves major questions unanswered, including what investigators believe happened between the reported pregnancy emergency and the discovery of the infant outside the home.
Booneville is the seat of Owsley County, a small Appalachian county in eastern Kentucky where serious criminal cases can ripple through a close-knit community. The setting matters because the timeline in this case spans two winters and moved from an emergency medical report to a long state police investigation. The public record so far is narrow. The Kentucky State Police release provides the broad outline, local television coverage confirms the arrest dates and jail status, and a later local court listing showed the case moving into arraignment stage. But many pieces that often help explain a newborn death case remain outside public view, including the autopsy findings, any witness accounts, whether medical records played a role, and whether prosecutors believe the infant died before or after birth. Until those records are filed in court or discussed in open proceedings, the public account is limited largely to the basic law enforcement timeline.
The procedural path is clearer than the factual details. State police said the Owsley County Grand Jury issued indictments on Jan. 22, 2026, and both defendants were arrested Feb. 9, 2026. A public court listing published in early March showed both Deeann Bennett and Charles Bennett set for arraignment in Owsley Circuit Court on March 2, 2026. An arraignment is the stage where charges are formally read and defendants typically enter pleas. No public filing reviewed for this story showed a trial date, plea agreement or dismissal. Reckless homicide in Kentucky is a felony, and the added counts against Deeann Bennett could increase the legal stakes if the case moves forward. The next major milestone will likely be future circuit court hearings where prosecutors and defense lawyers address evidence, motions and scheduling, and where court records may begin to fill in the gaps left by the initial police announcement.
For now, the scene described by investigators remains stark: a hospital report of a possible miscarriage, a return trip to a home on Lewis Lane, and an infant found down an embankment outside. Trooper Justin Kearney, a public affairs officer with Kentucky State Police, said when the arrests were announced that two people had been taken into custody after a yearlong investigation. Local reports repeated the same sequence from the state police release, underscoring how little the public narrative has changed since the first official update. In Booneville, where crime coverage often centers on traffic cases, drug prosecutions and routine court dockets, the case stands out for both the age of the allegations and the death of an infant. As of mid-March 2026, the Bennetts’ charges remained the central public development, with the broader account still waiting on court filings and any future statements from investigators or prosecutors.
As of March 15, 2026, the case had moved from investigation to prosecution, but key facts about the infant’s death had not been publicly detailed. The next visible milestone is a further Owsley Circuit Court proceeding as the charges against Deeann and Charles Bennett continue.
Author note: Last updated March 15, 2026.