LEBANON, Tenn. (AP) — Josh Osborne, a child abuse survivor who inspired a stronger Tennessee law, has died at age 24.
WTVF-TV reports that Osborne was surrounded by friends and family when he died Tuesday night. He had been battling a virus in what was an ongoing series of health problems.
Authorities in 2004 found Osborne, then 15, in his Lebanon home where he had been starved and chained to a bed. He weighed only 50 pounds. Osborne's father and stepmother were later sentenced to six years in prison after being convicted of attempted aggravated child neglect.
In 2008, then-Gov. Phil Bredesen signed the "Josh Osborne Law," which added starvation and dehydration to the list of child abuse charges.