You know you live in the ghetto when...

...you have these idiots as neighbors.

Jathiya Wooden and Troy Allen Edwards; Two poor excuses for human beings. These two idiots starved Jathiya (and another man's) 4 year old daughter TO DEATH! Then the poor little girl's faughter called authorities to report the child missing we were there as they showed up at Jathiya's apartment and escorted her out in hand cuffs. Later we saw the news articles:

Police found a 4-year-old girl dead in her home Sunday afternoon, and are calling the cause of her death "undetermined."

Police spokesman Chris Amos said the girl's father called around 3 p.m. to report his daughter missing. After a search, she was found dead in her mother's residence, in the 300 block of E. Little Creek Ave.

Amos said the mother and a male friend are being questioned, but he said no charges have been

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Police have charged the mother of a dead 4-year-old girl and her boyfriend with murder and felony child neglect, a police spokesman said.

Police found Tamera Wooden dead about 4:15 p.m. Sunday inside her mother’s home in the 300 block of East Little Creek Road, said Officer Chris Amos. The search began after the girl’s mother called police about 3 p.m. to report her daughter missing, Amos said.

Amos identified the suspects as Jathiya Wooden, 26, and Troy Allen Edwards, 29, both of the 300 block of East Little Creek. Edwards is not the child’s father, Amos said.

Both suspects are in the Norfolk City Jail. Amos said he could not release any more details, including the cause of death.

Investigators went to the medical examiner’s office this morning to follow the child’s autopsy.

Police initially characterized the girl’s death “undetermined” but have now classified it as a homicide, Amos said.

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Tamera Wooden, the 4-year-old girl found dead in her mother's apartment over the weekend, died of deprivation of food and water - an unusual scenario for a child her age, even among cases of child fatalities that lead to criminal charges, officials said.

"This is kind of rare, from my experience," said Officer Chris Amos, a police spokesman. "Usually when it happens, they're infants."

Betty Wade Coyle, executive director of Prevent Child Abuse Hampton Roads, also said such deaths are more common with younger, crib-bound children who can't talk about what's happening.

More than three-quarters of child abuse or neglect deaths overall involve children 3 or younger, according to the Child Welfare Information Gateway, a service of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Coyle also noted that deaths from lack of nutrition were on the rise. "We're seeing more of these, which is just horrifying," she said.

Coyle said she does not think there is a simple answer for the growing numbers. "I think it's stress. I think it's economics. I think it's lack of community resources," she said.

Police found Tamera dead Sunday afternoon in her home in the 300 block of E. Little Creek Road. They began searching for her after her mother called them about 3 p.m. to report her daughter missing, police said.

They declined to release further details.

The state medical examiner's office concluded Tuesday that Tamera died from "deprivation of food and water," said Donna Price, an office spokeswoman.

The girl's mother, Jathiya Khabeer Wooden, 26, and her boyfriend, Troy Allen Edwards, 29, remained in the Norfolk City Jail without bail on murder and felony neglect charges after their arraignment Tuesday in Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 25, according to court records.

Wooden's care of Tamera had raised concerns for the grandmother of two of her other children, who said she reported her misgivings to Social Services. Doris Conner of New Church on the Eastern Shore said Tuesday that she received a letter promising an investigation.

Conner, who said her son had two children with Wooden, said she had come to love Tamera like one of her own grandchildren.

"She was sweet. She was cute. She was everything," she said.

When Wooden and her son split up, he took their two children, now toddlers, to live with him, Conner said. Conner said she tried to convince Wooden to let Tamera live with her on the Eastern Shore.

Jan Callaghan, spokeswoman for the Norfolk Department of Human Services, said Tuesday evening that she could not publicly discuss any case or investigation.

Jathiya Wooden, who is unemployed, was appointed a lawyer Tuesday. Edwards said he would hire his own.