FORT CAMPBELL, KY (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Details have emerged about the conditions that led up to the arrest of a Fort Campbell couple on aggravated child neglect charges, including claims that friends tried to report those conditions to Fort Campbell authorities.
Lyndsey Bustamante and Andrew Garasich, both 27, were indicted by a federal grand jury on May 1 and arrested by FBI agents on May 3.
Sgt. Garasich is an ammunition specialist on Fort Campbell, and Bustamante offered babysitting and pet sitting around the Fort Campbell area.
According to court documents, on Jan. 4 Bustamante took her baby to Houston County Community Hospital in Erin and said that several days earlier, the baby was burned while being given a bath by Garasich.
Shortly after they arrived, the baby was flown by LifeFlight helicopter to Vanderbilt in Nashville, where doctors discovered he had a skull fracture. While in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, the baby underwent numerous medical procedures and surgeries and was treated for organ failure and other life-threatening conditions, according to previous reports.
‘Filthy’ living conditions
Since then, people who know the couple have stepped forward. The sources spoke to Clarksville Now on condition of anonymity.
The first source said she first met the mother of two at a community event in 2019, well before Bustamante had her second child.
“She had a toddler who was close in age with my child,” the first source said.
She said she visited Bustamante and Garasich’s house on post and found “filthy” living conditions.
“It smelled horrible and they had about four animals at the time,” the first source said. “For the most part, the living room was acceptable. But the kitchen was filthy. She had very large- almost 5-gallon pots on the floor, filled with water, cleaning product, and food particles. Absolutely not acceptable for a small child who could have went head first and not been able to get out or drank it. Her child was playing in this huge pot of unclean water.”
This was corroborated by second source who said it was an animal hoarding situation, saying, “Imagine having 16 animals in a two-bedroom house.”
She said that if the child would start whining or crying, Bustamante would scream, “Shut the hell up!”
Clarksville Now has reached out to attorneys Stephanie Mize and Ronald Small, who are representing Bustamante and Garasich, respectively.
Attempts to report neglect
The first source said she tried to report the situation to Family Advocacy on post, but they would not take the reports because the source didn’t have the child’s date of birth or Social Security number.
According to the Blanchfield Army Community Hospital Public Affairs Office, the reporting point of contact for Fort Campbell families is the BACH Family Advocacy Program.
A licensed clinical social worker is available for receiving referrals of domestic abuse (adult and child) 24/7. If someone inadvertently contacts law enforcement to make a referral, law enforcement will contact BACH Family Advocacy to ensure a referral has been received. BACH receives referrals from any individual regardless of affiliation to the military or family.
According to Dawn Grimes, Fort Campbell deputy director of Public Affairs, when an individual calls to make a referral, they will be asked to provide any information they might have regarding the family they are calling about. No one will be turned away for not having enough information. The information received is then shared with law enforcement and/or Child Protective Services.
The second source tried contacting Fort Campbell housing – Campbell Crossing – about the dogs and the living conditions. She was directed to call Military Police.
“Military Police came by the house but were skeptical because I wasn’t from an agency and just a neighbor. They did come out, but I never saw them enter the house to check on the child, and I never saw the child leave the house to be inspected by them. They stood outside and spoke to Mr. Garasich and left,” she said.
Finally getting help
A third source, who was friends with Bustamante for years, spoke to Clarksville Now about the day she saw the baby in critical condition.
Bustamante had told her on several occasions that she didn’t feel she was meant to be a multiple baby parent, she said.
“There were signs of her having postpartum a couple weeks prior to this,” the source said. “She was messaging me and talking real bad about the baby. Like, ‘Oh my God, he just cries all the time, he poops nonstop, and I have to give him a bath every single day!’ I told her, ‘Lyndsey, these are all normal things that babies go through.'”
She said she told Bustamante not to be afraid to go to the doctor and tell them how she was feeling and get some help.
On the morning of Jan. 4, she woke up and saw that Bustamante had messaged her at 3:30 a.m. The message said, “The baby is getting worse. He is now bleeding.” The source said as soon as she saw the message, she sent a voice note urgently telling Bustamante to bring her son over and take the baby to the hospital. Less than 24 hours prior, Bustamante had told the woman that everything was fine, and the baby was getting better.
According to the third source, Bustamante was going to drop her oldest child off with her and then take the baby to the hospital.
“When I got in her back seat, and I saw the baby, she (Bustamante) kept talking about, ‘I wonder what the hospital is gonna say.’ She was like, ‘They’re gonna be so mad because I didn’t bring him sooner.’ After I saw the baby I said, ‘Lyndsey, right now, you don’t need to be worried about yourself. You need to be concerned about getting this baby to the hospital.'”
The source said the infant was barely breathing. The baby’s legs were wrapped in paper towels and blood was coming through.
“He could barely open his eyes. I held his hand, and he opened his eyes one time and looked at me.”
A hearing was ongoing Thursday and Friday in federal court in Nashville to determine whether the couple will remain in custody pending trial. If convicted, both defendants face a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison.