Bond denied for father who allegedly wouldn't open door for DFCS while daughter starved

ATLANTA - A father accused of kidnapping, cruelty to children and starving his daughter to death will remain in jail before trial.

Rodney McWeay, 31, asked to be released on bond Tuesday, but a Fulton County Superior Court judge wasted no time turning him down. The hearing was over within 11 minutes.

"I think he's a danger to reoffend and a danger to the community, based on his criminal history," Judge Kevin Farmer said. "And also a threat to intimidate witnesses."

Rodney McWeay, seen here with defense attorney Samantha Beck, faces 15 felony charges in the death of his 4-year-old daughter and alleged abuse of his other children and their mother. (FOX 5)

The McWeay case has exposed cracks in Georgia’s child protective services system, specifically a lack of cooperation between Atlanta police and the state Division of Family and Children Services. Records show DFCS workers used 911 to ask for police assistance, rather than backchannels that would indicate coordinated efforts.

A lingering question in the case: How could a father with no parental rights, accused of kidnapping his children, keep police and child protective services at bay by refusing to open his door?

A FOX 5 I-Team investigation found that in the months leading up to 4-year-old Treasure McWeay's death, caseworkers from the Division of Family and Children Services asked police for help checking on the family at least three times, with police either not responding or taking an hour and a half or more to show up. The Atlanta Police Department told the I-Team it’s conducting an internal investigation into its handling of 911 calls seeking welfare checks of Treasure and her two brothers.

McWeay’s refusal to cooperate with authorities was used as an argument to keep him incarcerated Tuesday.  

At one point, Fulton County Deputy District Attorney Lauren McAuley listed all the times McWeay dodged DFCS workers, including after the alleged kidnapping on July 6.

" … July 18th of 2023," McAuley said. "July 25th of 2023. August 3rd of 2023. August 4th of 2023. October 26th of 2023. October 25th of 2023. And November 15th, 2023, almost a month before Treasure, the 4-year-old child, was found deceased."

McWeay is accused of keeping Treasure and her brothers, ages 3 and 5, in squalor – locking them in separate rooms while he left the house for long periods, and watching them with surveillance cameras.

"None of the children were potty-trained," McAuley said in court Tuesday. "They were essentially being held at that residence locked in their rooms for extended periods of time, without food, without water."

Treasure McWeay, 4, died Dec. 11 after allegedly being starved to death by her father. She's seen here in a photo provided by a family friend.

McWeay faces 15 felony charges in the case, including malice murder. The prosecution brought out his long criminal history on Tuesday, including prior charges of unlawful entry, grand larceny, motor vehicle theft and breaking and entering, and how he's accused of beating the children's mother in front of the children.

The prosecutor said that after Treasure died, McWeay kept badgering her mother, who fled to Maryland because of domestic violence.

"Since the defendant has been in custody, he has attempted to contact the biological mother 46 times," Deputy District Attorney McAuley said. "After the 4-year-old child was deceased but before he was arrested on the charges that he is before the court today, he also attempted to take out a warrant on the biological mother."

Fulton County arrest warrants show that, at her death, Treasure weighed just 24 pounds, described as "extremely malnourished and dehydrated." A detective testified earlier this month that her body was "just pure bone."

The FOX 5 I-Team obtained the DFCS file on the case, which shows the agency had been involved with the family since 2021, over reports of domestic violence.

Rodney McWeay lived in the lower level of this duplex on Renfrew Court in Atlanta. According to the charges against him, it was a house of horrors for his three small children. (FOX 5)

After a call to DFCS from a daycare operator who had tried to help McWeay, the state removed the children from the home in June, placing them with their mother. McWeay is accused of traveling to Maryland in early July and snatching the children back, stealing their mother’s car in the process.

He allegedly returned the children to the same lower-level unit of a duplex on Renfrew Court, near Adamsville, that DFCS had just removed them from 11 days earlier. DFCS called the unit "deplorable," noting the children "appeared extremely hungry." There was no air on, the children were soiled, and one of the boys "could barely talk and sounded raspy as if he was dehydrated," a DFCS narrative says.

But according to police and DFCS records, whenever authorities went looking for the children there, McWeay wouldn't answer his door. 

"They should have done everything they could to remove those children and have that man arrested," attorney and former DFCS director Tom Rawlings told the I-Team earlier this month. "You keep calling the police until they show up. You call your attorneys and you ask them to take the case to juvenile court.

"There are lots and lots of options," Rawlings said. "Do these workers understand how to do that? That’s one of the questions."