A mother from Pennsylvania, Sherilyn Hawkins, pled guilty to criminal charges of neglecting her adult son, Tylim Hatchett. The father of the child, Vernon Hatchett, who was also implicated in the neglect and starvation of their son, has since gone missing and has a $7,500 bounty to his name.
According to NBC1o Philadelphia, on the morning of Sep. 18, 2024, police responded to a call in Montgomery County about a man who was unresponsive in an apartment complex in Dresher. The man was Tylim, and at the time he weighed a shocking 59 pounds — the emaciated frame certainly didn’t match what people expect from a 21-year-old man.
The father, Vernon, was also at the site and had apparently arrived about two hours before the police were called, so the understanding as of now is that he knew the condition of his son before anyone else. Individuals living with conditions like cerebral palsy and sometimes even younger people with autism often require round-the-clock supervision. A lapse in that can have adverse effects on their long-term health or even lead to death.
Sometimes deaths like this lead to investigations into the culpability of the parents — and soon enough, police arrested Sherilyn Hawkins and Tylim’s caregiver, Loretta Harris, in Jan. 2025. They’re both facing abuse of care and neglect charges and were quick to join the group of suspects who prefer pleading guilty and awaiting their sentence by showing the judge they’ve already started learning from their mistakes and therefore deserve less time behind bars.
However, Vernon has still not been found. Montgomery County officials were able to confirm that his real name is Khaliyl Ward. He now has a $7,500 bounty, and police are promising the amount to anyone who provides useful information leading to his arrest.
There are always a lot of terms and conditions when it comes to actually collecting this money. In the aftermath of the Luigi Mangione case, there were multiple users online claiming that the person who eventually reported him to the police never got the reward they were promised, so people should never report crimes just because of lucrative figures.
But there’s an argument to be made here that this situation is far more important than any amount of money. $7,500 is nothing to scoff at, and authorities certainly need to make it easier for people who report crimes to receive their stated rewards. But reports in this particular case reveal Tylim was blind, nonverbal, and fully dependent on care to survive.
Tylim didn’t choose his condition. It might have been hard for the caregivers, but for Tylim it was harder. They still let him starve and live in neglect until he died. Most of the people directly involved have already pleaded guilty, but Vernon is trying to run away from his responsibility one more time — and if that’s not more of a motivator than any dollar amount, I don’t know what else could ever be.
Vernon is still out at large and Montgomery County Police will not stop searching until he’s also in custody.
