A woman who recently spent time in a cell right beside Joe Clyde Daniels’ mother spoke exclusively to NewsChannel 5.
The five-year-old’s father, Joseph, has been charged with criminal homicide after admitting to beating the child to death. His mother, Krystal, has been charged with aggravated child neglect.
Krystal admitted to being in the house when her husband beat Joe Clyde to death and knew he disposed of the body.
Both are being held in the Dickson County Jail.
NewsChannel 5’s Nick Beres sat down with Amy Rigdon-Warden who was recently booked into jail on a minor failure to appear charge. She said she spent about six hours in a cell right next to Krystal.
That makes her one of the few people to talk with and observe the mother since her arrest and incarceration.
"I literally was beside her cell," said Rigdon-Warden.
Krystal apparently would not directly talk about the specifics of her case, but the two did converse. Krystal reportedly won't cooperate with investigators.
"I just kind of kept watching her to see her mindset... how did she act? Did she act like this monster that we think she is or her husband is," said Rigdon-Warden.
At first, Krystal was asleep in her empty cell -- no books, TV, or radio.
"A cot, her blanket, pillow, sheet, toilet, and that was it," said Rigdon-Warden.
A photograph of Joe has been placed in both his mother and father’s cells at the jail.
Rigdon-Warden spoke about that photo and how Krystal reacted.
“It was almost like a numb reaction. The first thing she did was she laid her head on the glass right where the pictures at, and she just kinda of looked down and tapped it twice with her finger,” Rigdon-Warden said. “Then she just held her head down and just kinda turned away, and she just seemed so empty, you know, like numb.”
Rigdon-Warden said it looked like Krystal wanted to feel something, but couldn’t to get it to come out.
She said Krystal seemed depressed -- refusing to eat and flushing her food down the toilet -- and she stated she wanted to hate Krystal; however, she said when she left, she felt like Krystal may have been extremely abused her entire life and believes she may have been scared to intervene.
Joe Clyde's remains in this high-profile case still have not been found. It's now going on four weeks since he disappeared.
Crews are expected to be out again this week looking for his remains, but said at this point, there are few leads.
