Disabled adults live in bus as caregiver sleeps in hotel, Tennessee police say

Six malnourished adults were found living on a bus towing goats during a long-distance journey while their caregiver was sleeping in a hotel at night, Tennessee police said.

Bernice Jarrett, 61, was charged with six counts of neglect of a vulnerable adult, the Memphis Police Department said April 9.

Officers responded to a medical situation the day before and said they found a yellow bus containing five adults with intellectual disabilities and one adult with dementia living in “inhumane conditions.”

They had no food or running water, and they wore dirty clothes, police said.

“One of the passengers had been critically injured the day before by another passenger and had not received medical attention,” officers wrote in the release.

Investigators said Jarrett was driving the group, plus three live goats in the trailer, hundreds of miles from Texas to Virginia. But Jarrett had been staying in hotels overnight, leaving the six disabled adults alone, according to police.

All six were taken to a hospital, with one in critical condition, police said.