DATE: Wednesday, July 23, 1997              TAG: 9707230678

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

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COURTS AND CRIME

A 24-year-old woman was arrested and charged with child neglect Tuesday after a maintenance man found her two young sons alone and locked in a bedroom Monday with no ventilation, food or water, police said.

About 12:40 p.m. Monday, the maintenance man at the Oconee Point Apartments entered the woman's apartment in the 2500 block of Oconee Avenue and found the boys, ages 16 months and 2 1/2 years, said police spokesman Mike Carey.

Carey said the temperature in the dark bedroom where the boys were found was over 90 degrees. Both boys were wearing soiled diapers, and investigators found crumbs and small pieces of food on the floor with an empty bottle.

Carey said the boys' mother, Amber Nicole Savage, left for work at 6:30 a.m. Monday and would not have returned until 6:30 p.m. Investigators said the boys had been left alone before.

Savage was charged with four counts of felony child neglect and was released on a $25,000 personal recognizance bond. NORFOLK Woman's body discovered in river by tugboat crew

A woman whose body was discovered by a tugboat crew in the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River on Sunday has been identified as Rachel L. Ricks, 48.

Police spokesman Larry Hill said the death has been ruled an accidental drowning, but the case is under investigation.

Ricks' last known address was in the 2900 block of Kimball Terrace, but Hill said she was not living there at the time of her death.

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