Mother, boyfriend indicted in 8-year-old’s bathtub drowning death

MOULTRIE, Ga. (WALB/Gray News) — A mother and her boyfriend were indicted in connection with the drowning death of the woman’s 8-year-old son.

Julie Hurst and Dalton Johnson both face charges of murder and cruelty to children in connection with the boy’s death.

Authorities said that after a 911 call in July 2025, the boy was taken to Colquitt Regional Medical Center, then to a hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, where he was pronounced dead.

According to the indictment, the two allegedly “did commit the offense of murder … by leaving the child unattended in the bathtub whereby the child experienced a lack of oxygen to his brain.”

Johnson refused “to report physical and mental abuse occurring to said child while they lived together,” according to the indictment.

The indictment alleges Hurst fractured the boy’s ribs “by throwing and pushing said child into a countertop,” and “striking him in the face with her hand.”

A trial date has not yet been set.