BENTON COUNTY, Mo. — A Missouri girl has died after she, her mother and a toddler boy were badly beaten, authorities said.
According to KRCG and KMIZ, Benton County sheriff’s deputies responded to a Cole Camp home about 1 a.m. Sunday after James Mast, 28, reported that someone had beaten his 4-year-old daughter and dunked her in a pond. Mast told authorities that the child was then “left to freeze on the bank before being taken back into her home,” the Benton County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a Facebook post.
In addition, the girl’s 28-year-old mother, Mary S. Mast, and a 2-year-old boy suffered injuries in what deputies described as a “severe” beating, the Facebook post read. The two were hospitalized, authorities said.
Deputies arrested Ethan J. Mast, 35, and Kourtney T. Aumen, 21, in connection with the incident, according to the Facebook post. “Multiple felony charges” are pending against the pair, authorities said.
“This is still an active investigation with the possibility of further arrests, so we are unable to provide any further details at this time,” the Facebook post said.