Prosecutors say a months-long investigation ended with felony murder and aggravated child abuse charges in Mobile County.
MOBILE, Ala. — A Theodore woman has been charged with felony murder and aggravated child abuse after prosecutors said she left her two children, both described as having severe autism, alone overnight in a mobile home where her 14-year-old son died and her 16-year-old daughter was later hospitalized.
Authorities said the charges against Amanda Marie Morgan follow an investigation that began on Oct. 8, 2025, when Mobile police responded to a mobile home park on Sperry Road in Theodore and found the boy dead. The case drew added scrutiny after investigators described extreme neglect inside the home and said the surviving teenager was suffering from malnutrition. The district attorney’s office said charges were filed only after autopsy and toxicology findings were returned, giving prosecutors what they said was enough evidence to move forward.
Morgan, 39, was booked Monday morning after police and prosecutors spent months reviewing the case. According to the district attorney’s office, she left her 14-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter alone in the home overnight. While she was gone, prosecutors said, the boy became entangled in a blanket and was strangled. When officers reached the home, they found the teenager dead at the scene and saw what police described earlier as signs of neglect. The daughter was taken to a hospital for treatment after officers determined she was malnourished. The criminal case changed from a neglected-child death investigation to a homicide prosecution once the district attorney’s office said it had final medical findings in hand. That timing helps explain why months passed between the child’s death and Morgan’s arrest this week.
Investigators and prosecutors have described the home in blunt terms. They said there was feces on the walls and throughout the residence, that the home had no running water, no working air conditioning and a bug infestation. Those details now sit at the center of the aggravated child abuse allegation and help form the basis for the felony murder charge. Prosecutors have not publicly laid out every step they believe led to the boy’s death, and the full autopsy and toxicology reports have not been released. It also remains unclear how long the children were alone, whether anyone had checked on them before officers arrived, or whether prior complaints about the home had been reported to authorities. What has been stated publicly is narrower: the district attorney’s office says both children had severe autism, one child died while left unsupervised, and the other was alive but in poor condition when first responders entered the residence.
Theodore, an unincorporated community in Mobile County south of the city of Mobile, is not new to the strain that serious neglect cases place on law enforcement, hospitals and the courts. But child death investigations often move slowly because prosecutors typically wait for medical examiners, toxicology work and a final case file before deciding what charge can be proved. In this case, Mobile police said their part of the inquiry was completed and then forwarded to the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office for review. That handoff became a key point in the public timeline. The child’s death was first investigated in October 2025, but the arrest did not come until March 2026. The gap reflects the procedural reality of cases where a death scene, living conditions and medical evidence all have to be evaluated together before prosecutors decide whether the facts support abuse, manslaughter or, as alleged here, felony murder.
A judge later set Morgan’s release conditions at a $400,000 cash component bond on the felony murder count and a $40,000 cash component bond on the aggravated child abuse count. Court records released through local reporting show that if she posts bond, she must remain on house arrest and wear an electronic monitor. The judge also ordered that she have no contact with her 16-year-old daughter. Morgan is scheduled to return to court on March 24 for arraignment, the next public step in the case. At that hearing, the charges will be formally addressed in court and Morgan will have an opportunity to enter a plea. Prosecutors may also begin to outline how they intend to present the evidence, though fuller details often emerge later through motions, hearings and discovery rather than at an arraignment alone.
The scene described by investigators has already made the case one of the more disturbing child neglect prosecutions in the Mobile area this year. The allegations tie together a child’s death, the care of a medically vulnerable sibling and a home described as unsafe on several levels. Even with that, many important details are still missing from public view. Authorities have not released the children’s names, have not provided a detailed narrative of the final hours before the boy died and have not said whether additional agencies became involved after the daughter was taken for treatment. For now, the public account remains built around a few stark facts: a 14-year-old boy is dead, his sister survived and was hospitalized, and their mother now faces charges that could carry severe penalties if prosecutors prove the case in court.
The case stood Friday with Morgan charged, bond conditions in place and an arraignment set for March 24. The next milestone is expected to be that court appearance, where the prosecution and defense will begin shaping the path toward trial or any later plea negotiations.
Author note: Last updated March 20, 2026.