State lawmaker discusses protecting children after baby found buried in Lexington County

BATESBURG-LEESVILLE, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - Koah Sharp, 11 months old, was found Tuesday buried a foot below ground, inside a dog crate in Lexington County, about 24 hours after he was reported missing, Sheriff Jay Koon said.

Koah’s father, Michael Comer, 25, is charged with attempted murder, unlawful conduct toward a child and custodial interference. Koah was taken to a hospital, released that night, and is expected to make a full recovery, according to his medical team.

The case reminded state Rep. Melissa Oremus of Javeayah Harris, a 4-year-old girl from Aiken County who died this summer.

Oremus represents Aiken County, and she plans to introduce Javeayah’s Law in the South Carolina House during the legislative session that starts in January. The bill would hold DSS investigations open longer and require more transparency.

Oremus compared the start of Javeayah’s search with this week’s search for Koah.

“Just like with Javeayah, we all at the beginning thought we had a missing persons case,” Oremus said. “We’re like, we’re looking for a little girl. The community united, they were looking for her. Same thing.”

Oremus began drafting Javeayah’s Law after Javeayah’s death. Since the summer, she has made it her mission to help South Carolina children who can’t help themselves.

“I had to look at where we broke down, and we lost those children in the mix,” Oremus said. “We have to figure out how we did not serve those kids.”

Oremus said the most information she received pointed to a breakdown in communication with DSS, which she described as “the one that is tasked with protecting these kids, and they are a state agency, and we have to hold them accountable.”

“I now know that there are things we could have been doing and it’s a shame on us for not catching it,” she said. “It takes a tragedy for us to figure out that something is broken. Shame on us for not all as lawmakers going and saying, hey, where is this broken?”

Oremus said that after these two recent events, she doesn’t want children to feel forgotten in South Carolina.

“I don’t want the world to think South Carolina is a place where we don’t take care of and love our children; that’s far from the truth,” she said. “And so holding that agency accountable, that’s supposed to be doing their job, protecting those kids, is what we have to do.”

Oremus also questioned whether those responsible for protecting children are being held accountable.

“Are we holding the ones accountable that are supposed to be protecting these children?” she said. “And that should alarm everybody that things like that are falling through the cracks.”