DOUGLAS COUNTY, Mo. – Two women and one man were arrested Wednesday in rural southwest Missouri on child endangerment charges following a tip to the state’s Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline.

According to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, the arrests were made in Oldfield, located approximately 25 miles southeast of Springfield.

A sheriff’s office spokesman said a deputy and members of the Children’s Division went to the residence early Wednesday, where they located about 80 well-maintained, mature marijuana plants. However, the deputy did not find anyone at the home.

An hour later, the sheriff and that same deputy went back to the home and saw that the marijuana plants had been cut down and placed in a pile. The sheriff knocked on the door and spoke with Jammie J. White.

The sheriff’s office said White, 44, told the sheriff that Ashlee M. Dean, 21, and Nicholas W. Womble, 25, ran into the woods with an 8-week-old infant after the deputy and Children’s Division workers first left. White also admitted to cutting down the marijuana plants in the interim.

White yelled out toward the woods, and Womble and Dean emerged with the infant.

The sheriff’s office said the infant was very malnourished and in poor physical health. The child was taken to a local hospital, where doctors learned the baby had not been given its prescribed medication.

In addition, the sheriff’s office said the parents were feeding the infant goat milk replacement, mashed up Vienna sausages, and Mountain Dew Code Red.

The infant was placed in state custody and is receiving ongoing medical care.

The Douglas County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged White, Womble, and Dean with first-degree endangering the welfare of a child – serious physical injury and abuse or neglect of a child. White remains jailed on a $150,000 cash-only bond; Womble and Dean were each jailed on $15,000 cash-only bonds.

The trio is due back in court on September 3.