According to the Daily Mirror, Robert Buskey Jr. pleaded guilty in January to second-degree murder and criminal sale of a controlled substance to a child, and was sentenced to 27 years to life. Authorities were called to Buskey's home on April 14, 2024, where they found the body of his severely emaciated daughter, Charlotte, locked in a bedroom, and his three-year-old son kept in a makeshift cage in the dining room.
The Schenectady County District Attorney's Office stated that both children had been neglected and malnourished for months, completely closed off from the outside world. Buskey had installed a lock on the outside of Charlotte's bedroom door, which he later reinforced with tape after discovering she could escape by jiggling it, and Charlotte did not have a proper bed, sleeping in a 'pack n play' so small she had to curl up in the fetal position. When found, she was so dehydrated that her eyes had sunken into her skull, and both children tested positive for cocaine.
Their world shrunk to the confines of Mr. Buskey's deplorable home, and ultimately, for Charlotte, the confines of her bedroom in which Mr. Buskey kept her locked, and Jackson, in his cage, so Mr. Buskey could do drugs, play video games, and not be bothered by his children. Mr. Buskey's children did not even have the comfort of each other in the end.
Buskey was charged with sale of a narcotic drug after both children tested positive for cocaine; under state law, 'sale' of a drug includes giving a drug, and he pled guilty to giving a narcotic drug to his son. At his sentencing on April 3, Buskey apologized for his actions and took responsibility. The District Attorney's Office described the children's world as shrinking to the confines of Buskey's deplorable home, with Charlotte locked in her bedroom and Jackson in his cage, so Buskey could do drugs, play video games, and not be bothered, adding that Charlotte spent her final days abandoned with no food or water, dying in a house stocked with food.
It remains unknown what specific video games Buskey was playing, how long exactly the children had been neglected, what the son's condition was beyond the cage, whether there were previous interventions by child protective services, or what triggered the extreme neglect.
That's where Charlotte spent her final days, abandoned and locked in her room by her father. She had no food, no water, no contact with anyone, in a pack n play, left there to die, and she did. And she died in a house that was stocked with food, including boxes of food right outside of her locked bedroom.