NY girl, 3, dies from lice infestation, severe neglect after hoarding parents subjected her to ‘horrific’ conditions Article | Archive
By David Propper Published June 24, 2026, 9:23 p.m. ETA little girl was so badly neglected at her family’s disgusting upstate New York home that she contracted a deadly lice infestation and was later found with rotting teeth – leading an enraged judge to throw the book at her disgraced parents.
Joycelynn Ann Dylewski, 3, was killed by the squalid conditions inside her parents’ — Matthew Dylewski, 34, and Samantha Dylewski, 33 — Corinth apartment on Feb. 19, 2025, after investigators found bugs on her face and scalp, the outlet reported.
A cockroach even fell out of her winter hat when it was removed from her head. And an investigator also reportedly found her teeth “rotten and black.”
The disgraced couple were reportedly hit with up to four years in prison this month.
“You failed as a parent,” Saratoga County Judge James Davis told Matthew Dylewski Monday as he slapped him with a 1 1/3- to four-year prison sentence, the Times Union reported.
Jocelyn Ann Dylewski died last year from severe neglect.
“Your entire job was to keep her safe.”
The little girl was diagnosed with anemia, which damaged her heart and organs due to the lice and was also dosed with a blood pressure medication, clonidine, Saratoga County Sheriff Jeffrey Brown reportedly said.
The combination of those factors led to her death, according to the Times Union.
“She was a 3-year-old, and you failed in the most horrific way,” Davis added.
“She was completely reliant upon you. … This was completely preventable, and it’s unconscionable, and I want you to think about that fact.”
The parents were both hit with the max sentence.
Rooms in the hoarder home were stuffed with garbage and debris. The conditions were so disgusting that the property was condemned, WRGB reported.
The unfit parents pleaded to criminally negligent homicide earlier this year.
“I totally wish that it didn’t happen,” Matthew Dylewski whined at his sentencing, according to the Times Union.
The upstate New York home was littered with trash.
“I wish it would be that I died instead of my daughter. I still think that to this day. … I constantly think about it. Nothing is ever going to change. I still want to die so I can be with her.”
Samantha Dylewski was hit with her sentence on June 8 by the same judge who handled her husband’s case.
“Your daughter suffered over a long period of time,” Davis said, according to the Times Union.
“Even the other children could see that she suffered because of your neglect. It’s a gift to have a child. You had several children, and all of them suffered at your hands.”
Both parents are prohibited from having any contact with their four surviving children until 2038.
“As their mother, it’s my duty to protect them from harm, and I failed,” Samantha Dylewski said at her sentencing.
