The community of Kansas City, Missouri, US is left in shockwaves, mourning the loss of an infant who died due to her mother’s horrific ‘mix-up’.
The 26-year-old mother ‘mistakenly’ put her month-old baby girl in an oven instead of a crib for a nap resulting in the infant’s death due to the negligence.
The accused mother, Mariah Thomas (26) is a resident of Kansas City and is facing first-degree Class A felony charges of endangering a child’s welfare and first-degree death of a child, as per the prosecutors said on Saturday. Thomas is currently being held in Jackson County Detention Centre and reportedly a friend of the accused suggested Thomas’ mental health could have played a role in the tragedy.
The tragic incident took place on Friday afternoon at 1 when the police officers in Missouri received a call for an infant not breathing. As the responding officers reached the Kansas City house at 41st Street and Forest Avenue they reported extensive burns on an unresponsive baby. They pronounced the baby ‘dead at the scene’ describing it as “gruesome”.
An investigation was immediately initiated and the first responders of the crime reported that the mother of the deceased infant wanted to put the baby for a nap but ‘mistakenly’ put her into an oven.
However, as per the reports of the Daily Express US, an arrest warrant read that the baby had some apparent “thermal injuries” and the clothes of the child were blackened and melted into the diaper while the baby had some “significant” burn wounds. A burnt baby blanket was also found in the house.
The Kansas City Star reported that as per the witness’ statement, he was called upon emergency around 1 pm that something was wrong with the baby and needed to go home immediately. According to the affidavit, when he reached home he could smell ‘smoke’ inside the house and found the baby dead in the crib.
Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office is investigating all possibilities of the mother who alleged putting her baby in an oven ‘mistakenly’ could have committed the crime knowingly. According to the prosecuting attorney Jean Peters Baker, Thomas facing Class A felony charges of endangering the welfare of a child and first-degree death of a child.
The statement of the witness or Thomas for ‘unknowingly’ and ‘mistakenly’ putting an infant into an oven did not provide enough clarification for how such a horrific error took place, while the other circumstances around the event have also not been revealed.