Woman would beat 3-year-old child when she wasn’t ignoring him, SC sheriff says
A South Carolina woman is in jail after getting charged with multiple counts of child abuse, according to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.
On Tuesday, 30-year-old Sumter resident Hannah Marie Lemke was charged with two counts of placing a child at risk or causing harm to a child, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
The sheriff’s office said it became involved Tuesday after receiving a call about child abuse at a Lynam Road home.
Lemke was seen on the home’s surveillance footage abusing the 3-year-old child, according to an incident report shared by the sheriff’s office.
In a video marked April 22, 2026, Lemke is seen getting mad at the toddler and grabbing him by the throat with both of her hands, the incident report shows. She then shook and threw the child to the ground while screaming, according to the incident report.
In another video labeled April 22, 2026, Lemke hit the toddler on his rear end with a foot-long cooking spoon, the incident report said. Lemke hit the child about 25 times, which the sheriff’s office called “excessive,” after it appeared she was frustrated over a Pop-tart, according to the incident report.
In the next video, dated April 23, 2026, Lemke appears to get frustrated because the 3-year-old wants to play with a trash can, then grabs the boy and again hitss him with the cooking spoon 21 times, the incident report shows.
All other surveillance footage shows Lemke ignoring the toddler by sitting on the couch, looking at her cellphone and only acknowledging the boy by screaming at him “to leave her alone” if he tried to be with her, according to the incident report.
Other surveillance footage showed Lemke repeatedly screaming “shut the f--- up,” to the 3-year-old, and also spanking him multiple times with her hand because the child opened a pantry door, the incident report said.
Another person who was interviewed by deputies said the abuse only occurs when Lemke is left alone with the child, but ignoring the boy is her primary course of action, according to the incident report.
Lemke refuses to potty train the boy, and changes his diaper twice a day if he’s “lucky,” the incident report shows. Additionally, the person told deputies that Lemke will eat all the child’s food when he’s not near it, and the toddler will go to the kitchen to eat and see only an empty plate, according to the incident report.
While the 3-year-old will shake in fear when around Lemke, she ofter leaves the boy to his own devices throughout the day, which includes allowing him to have access to kitchen knives and other dangerous objects, the incident report said.
When Lemke was arrested, deputies contacted the South Carolina Department of Social Services, the sheriff’s office said. There was no word who currently has custody of the 3-year-old, but it’s not Lemke, who remains locked up in the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office Detention Center, court records show. Her bond was set at $5,000 on each of the charges but has yet to be posted, according to Sumter County court records.
Despite Lemke’s arrest, the sheriff’s office said it’s continuing to investigate the case.
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