A Florida woman has been charged with aggravated manslaughter after her 6-year-old son allegedly beat her newborn daughter to death while left alone in a car.
Authorities say 62-year-old Kathaleen Steele left her 6-year-old, 13-day-old, and 3-year-old inside of a minivan while she visited a cellphone repair shop. The children were reportedly left alone for approximately 40 minutes. The vehicle, which was a rental, was left unattended, locked, with the engine turned off and the windows up.
During an investigation, detectives asked the boy to show them what he had done to his 13-day-old sister, using a toy doll. [trigger warning] The boy reportedly flipped the doll, banged it’s head against the ceiling of the car, punched it’s face, and twisted its body because of the constant crying. According to an autopsy report, the newborn’s body suffered swollen eyes, bruises, a shattered skull, and turned cold, and blue. She was later pronounced dead.
According to officials, when Steele returned to her vehicle she did not tend to the visibly disabled infant, but instead drive to a local Enterprise to renew the lease on her rental car. Hours later, Steele alerted her neighbor of the baby’s condition, who then called the police. According to emergency workers, at the scene while EMT’s attempted to revive her child, Steele continued to put up groceries in her kitchen.
“Those of us that have been doing this and been in this business for a very long time have never seen anything like this,” Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said Thursday. “… Nobody can ever recall a situation in our history here in Florida where we’ve had a 6-year-old kill a 13-day-old.”
“It’s a very sad case, to say the least, but the accountability belongs with Kathleen Steele,” Gualtieri continued, “the mother who is, by all accounts, ill-equipped to have a baby.”
Steele, who was featured on a TV series highlighting her motherhood at a late age, has a extended history with her three children. Her first son was born when she was 55, and her last two children were conceived of artificial insemination from her late husband’s frozen semen. Steele has had an ongoing battle with child services surrounding different incidents with her children, one of which left her baby with a minor brain bleed after being dropped out of a child carrier. Steele’s latest DCF visit was scheduled for August 10, two days after her newborn was killed.
Steele is currently being held on a $100,000 bond. Her children are in protective custody.
Source: Washington Post
