Utah – An Utah coupIe was arrested and booked into the county jail on charges of first-degree feIony chiId trture, the District Attorney’s Office said. The charges were filed after prosecutors say the coupIe, 32-year-old DanieI and 44-year-old Jesica, repeatedly withheld food from the man’s 5-year-old chiId, leaving her severeIy maInourished.
The investigation began earlier this year, when the father took the child, identified in charging documents as R.C., to a local hospital reporting that she was not gaining weight and had been eating nonfood items. Medical staff at the hospital’s Center for Safe and Healthy Families found the child had severe malnutrition and growth failure and noted symptoms consistent with potentially life-threatening malnutrition. At admission her weight was described as that of a much younger child; after roughly two weeks on a consistent diet while in state custody she gained weight.
Utah authorities opened an investigation after hospital staff raised concerns. Detectives reviewed medical records and interviewed family members and others in the household. Investigators obtained a probable cause affidavit that describes observations by hospital staff, interviews with the adults in the home and statements from the couple’s other child, and concludes that the child’s failure to grow was the result of prolonged withholding of food rather than an undiagnosed medical condition. The child was removed from the home and placed in foster care while the inquiry continued.
According to charging documents and the affidavit cited by prosecutors, the father told investigators he had gained custody of the girl when she was about 1-year-old old and that, over time, she “steadily decreased on the growth chart.” The affidavit records that he admitted he had resented the child, that he thought she rubbed him the wrong way, and that he had tried at one point to turn custody over to the Division of Child and Family Services. Prosecutors say those admissions, together with medical findings and other evidence, supported the charging decision.
Investigators also interviewed his spouse and another child who lived in the apartment. The other child, identified in reports as the woman’s son, told police that the family installed child locks on the refrigerator, freezer and pantry because they believed the 5-year-old would take food. He said his mother was the one who suggested locking the food. Police allege the couple limited the child’s access to food and that another child in the home did not show signs of the same malnutrition, which investigators say points to purposeful withholding. Those details are included in the probable cause affidavit and in news summaries of the court filings.
According to the Utah authorities, the 5-year-old girl was severely malnourished, and investigators believe she was purposely denied food over an extended period of time. Because she was starving, she resorted to eating non-food items, including modeIing cIay and wax. According to the affidavit, she also ate her own f-ces, which detectives said can occur in late-stage starvation when a child tries to sustain herself however possible.
Fivas told police the child would ‘steaI’ food from the refrigerator and pantry, leading her dad and his spouse to install child safety locks on every cabinet and appliance that contained food. Another child in the home was not malnourished, which led investigators to conclude the girl was being singled out and deprived of food on purpose. Detectives also found that the girl slept on the ground with only a blanket and was not enrolled in school, which they believed further isolated her.
