Parents face charges after girl falls in well

The mother and stepfather of a 10-year-old girl who fell into a well at their home in Berry on April 7 are facing charges related to the incident.

The child was rescued from the well by volunteer firefighters and airlifted to the University of Kentucky Medical Center for treatment and stabilization.

Her mother and stepfather, Lacey and John Enlow, are now facing charges of second degree wanton endangerment and endangering the welfare of a minor.

The complaint warrant states that the plywood covering the opening of “the well” was not secured at the time the child entered it.

Moreover, in the past two months officers from the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department have made “no less than three responses to the home due to the behavior” of the child, according to the warrant.

Deputy Josh Puckett said during his first contact with the child in the home she said she “wanted to go swimming in the well.” The statement was made in the presence of Lacey and John Enlow.

In addition, the warrant describes an incident in which “the child had destroyed the window in her second-floor bedroom and has jumped off of the roof of the house onto the ground.”

The child’s statements regarding the well and her willingness to take risks, as demonstrated by breaking the window and jumping off the roof, “put Lacey and John Enlow on notice that there was a foreseeable probability that the child would at some point remove the unsecured plywood and enter the well.”

By not securing the well in spite of their knowledge of the child’s unequivocal desire to swim in it, the warrant said, the Enlows “failed to exercise reasonable diligence.”

Both parents were arrested and subsequently lodged at the Bourbon County Detention Center but were released April 15.