Vigil Set For Illinois Boy, 6, Who Starved To Death

JERSEYVILLE, IL — Shocked and devastated community members are hosting a candlelight vigil Thursday night for 6-year-old Liam Roberts, the Jerseyville boy who died last week of extreme malnourishment. Liam's father, Michael Roberts, and his stepmother, Georgena Roberts, are charged with first-degree murder.

A criminal complaint accuses the couple of "knowingly and intentionally" causing the boy to become malnourished as punishment, leaving him to starve to death over a period of two years as a form of punishment. Liam weighed just 17 pounds — about one-third the typical weight of a 6-year-old boy — when his brother brought his body to a local hospital last Friday.

Liam's father and stepmother are also charged with a felony count of child endangerment in Liam's death and a misdemeanor count of child endangerment for their treatment of another child, age 7, who was also reportedly hospitalized but is now stable. Liam reportedly had three siblings and two step-siblings who all shared a home in Jerseyville, located about 40 miles north of St. Louis.

Police responded to a local hospital Friday for a report of a dead child. According to the Jersey County state's attorney's office said Michael Roberts brought Liam to Jersey Community Hospital. The boy was already dead by the time he arrived, according to Riverbender.com.

Neighbors and community members are expected to attend a candlelight vigil for Liam at 6 p.m. Thursday at the county fairgrounds, located north of downtown Jerseyville on Highway 67.

Almost two years before Liam's death, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services reportedly investigated a hotline call that reported "inadequate food in the home," according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A DCFS spokeswoman said the case was closed as unfounded after a a pediatric specialist determined Liam's weight was due to a medical condition.

Soon after the call to child protective services, which reportedly came from the Jerseyville public school district, the Robertses decided to home school Liam and two of his siblings.

Though social media posts by Georgena Roberts featured photos of smiling kids, neighbors told The Telegraph couple's children were seldom seen. "They never spoke," one Jerseyville resident said. "They never came outside."

In Facebook posts, Georgena Roberts (who went by "Gena") ranted about insufficient punishment for child molesters. "It is truly a sick and twisted individual to think and act out on a child," she wrote in August.

The superintendent of the Jerseyville school district said the children were never enrolled in school, according The Telegraph, and both the mother and father have previous criminal convictions. Georgena Roberts was accused of running a meth lab in 2003 and charged with child endangerment. She eventually pleaded guilty to drug possession.

Mourners left notes, balloons and stuffed animals for Liam outside the Roberts family's Jerseyville home. “No kid deserves this,” one sign read, according to the Telegraph. “R.I.P Liam. You were loved. (If only) we knew.”

Photos: Georgena Roberts, left and Michael Roberts/Images via Jersey County States Attorney