An Indiana mom has been jailed after she was caught riding a bike and traveling across the city with her crying 2-month-old twins stashed in a milk crate. Blossum Kirby, 36, was sentenced to a year in prison on Monday for neglecting a dependent in the wake of the horrific event on an Indianapolis street last June, Fox 59 reported.
Multiple witnesses snapped some heartbreaking photos of Kirby's babies resting in the crate as the sweltering summer heat pressed down on them. The babies were just wearing diapers at the time. This prompted several people to call 911 and report the inhuman treatment of children by a mother.
Inhuman and Insensitive
Several witnesses claim to have seen Kirby almost fall off the bike while the infants were inside the plastic box in the sweltering summer heat. According to court filings, after Kirby was stopped, she told the officers that she always took her children that way since she didn't have a car.
Photos indicated that the box was being fastened on by a bungee cord and that the children were just wearing diapers in the mid-80s summer sunshine.
The babies, one boy and one girl, were transferred to Riley Hospital for Children to receive treatment for minor cuts and sunburns.
Brian Henderson, a witness to the incident, claimed that he initially believed the two kids to be dolls before he noticed one of the twins' arms moving.
"You can't have those babies in there like that, ma'am," Henderson could be heard telling the mom in a video that was shared on social media at the time.
Unlike a Mother
Suezanne Lynch, who also saw the incident take place, claimed that she jumped in to help and alerted medical personnel.
"She had told me that prior to me stopping her, she had one baby in the front and one baby in the back," Lynch told the local outlet.
"She couldn't control the bike that well, so she put both babies in the one milk crate in the front. [She said] that was her way of transporting the babies any time she left."
The passerby added: "It was heartbreaking. What I can't stop thinking about is I know I wasn't the only one to see her there were so many people who drove past her and just kept driving for who knows how long."
A Marion County jury convicted the woman responsible for both counts of child maltreatment on May 22, 2023.
She was handed a sentence of two years in jail with one year suspended for both offenses, which would be served concurrently.
