House Oversight calls Mecklenburg leaders to testify on Dominique Moody case

The North Carolina House Oversight Committee has called Mecklenburg Cuunty leaders to testify in the case of Dominique  Moody, a six-year-old who starved and beaten before her alleged murder in east Charlotte. 

Mecklenburg County Manager Mike Bryant, CMPD Chief Estella Patterson, Interim Director of Department of Child, Family, and Adult Services Leticia Loadholt and DHHS Division Director Lisa Cauley have all been called to testify in Raleigh on June 4.

In the letter signed by Reps Jake Johnson, Brenden Jones and Harry Warren, it writes, “Dominique Moody was six years old. She weighed 27 pounds when she died. That fact should stop every person in Mecklenburg County government cold.” 

The letter says the Department of Health and Human Services found that four out of five reports showed Moody’s caretakers “met the definition of abuse of neglect” but these reports were screened out “with no further assessment for the children’s safety.”

Accountability in Moody’s death has been ongoing since the arrests of Tonya McKnight, Tery’n McKnight, and Susan Robinson.

In March, renowned civil rights attorney Ben Crump and Moody’s family alleged that child welfare agencies had ample opportunity to intervene but repeatedly failed to act.

In April, Rep. Carla Cunningham introduced the Dominique Moody Safety Act, aimed at preventing severe child abuse cases, to the General Assembly while other lawmakers requested all Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police and Mecklenburg County DSS files in the case. 

Tonya, Tery’n and Robinson are all accused of first-degree murder in the death of Moody. Prosecutors say Moody’s weight and height of only three feet when she was found unresponsive on Dec. 16, 2025 is evidence that points to severe malnutrition. Investigators allege the child was often starved, restrained, and beaten.  

Court records also allege the suspects allowed five children, including the deceased victim, to remain in a home on Gwynne Hill Road that was “unkempt, contains human and animal feces in each room of the residence, has no centralized heating source, and is infested with rats and cockroaches, which bite and cause harm.”

County Manager Bryant is expected to show up with answers to questions regarding Mecklenburg leadership, social services and Child Protective Services. Chief Patterson and Sheriff McFadden are expected to testify if law enforcement agencies were called to the home Moody and other children were abused in, if the agencies were aware of abuse and what policies may have led to Moody’s death. 

Interim director Loadholt and division director Lisa Cauley are expected to answer questions regarding the county Department of Social Services and Department of Health and Human Services. 

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