A quiet neighborhood in Travelers Rest, South Carolina was shaken to its core when a 911 call led deputies to a home — and a four-year-old girl who would never come home again.
On April 24, Greenville County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a home on Chinquapin Road after a frantic call about an unresponsive child. When they arrived, they found Cassie Cheryl Ann Owens, just 4 years old, in cardiac arrest. She was rushed to a nearby hospital. She did not survive.
What investigators uncovered in the days that followed was even more disturbing than the scene they had walked into.
Cassie’s legal guardians — Nancy Dianne West, 42, and Bradley Kyle Craig, 46 — had allegedly been starving and abusing the little girl for weeks. Authorities say the pair “deprived the child of proper nutrition,” allowing her condition to deteriorate until her small body simply gave out.
But the abuse didn’t start on April 24.
Nearly a month earlier, on March 28, 2025, deputies had already been called to the same home. Craig reportedly admitted to hitting a child in the back of the head — twice — with his bare hand. Authorities have not confirmed whether that child was Cassie, but the pattern of violence at the home was already on record.
“There had been allegations of abuse at the home before.” — Greenville County Sheriff’s Office
This week, deputies arrested both West and Craig at their home. They now face charges of homicide by child abuse — one of the most serious charges in the South Carolina criminal code — and have been booked into the Greenville County Detention Center while awaiting a bond hearing.
What this means going forward: With a prior assault investigation on record and two adults now charged, prosecutors will likely argue this was not a single moment of negligence — but a prolonged, deliberate pattern of abuse that cost a four-year-old her life. If convicted, both suspects could face decades in prison.
Cassie Owens was four years old. She deserved protection, safety, and love. Instead, the people responsible for giving her those things took her life. Now, justice will have to speak for her.
