POLK COUNTY, Fla. — A Florida couple is facing charges after their 3-year-old daughter died. She weighed only 9 pounds at the time, police said.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the child “was just bone and skin,” WFTS reported.
The last time the little girl was taken to a doctor was on Jan. 2, 2020. From the time she was born on July 25, 2019, Judd said until that appointment, she had gained only three pounds.
She had been born weighing 6 pounds, 10 ounces according to her birth record, WTVT reported.
“Between January the second in 2020, when the baby went to the doctor for the last time, and May the 10th 2022 — which was two years and four months — that sweet baby gained only one ounce,” Judd told WFTS.
He said the parents were not following up with doctor’s appointments, and that the Department of Children and Families had noted that the baby was losing weight after it opened a medical neglect investigation, but that the baby was starting to gain weight and the case was closed.
“The baby should have been talking, putting sentences together, asking questions, running, jumping and playing,” Judd said, according to WTVT. “When this baby died on May 10, she couldn’t stand, she couldn’t talk, she couldn’t walk.”
The sheriff’s office said the child’s father, Regis Johnson, 57, called 911 when he found the girl wasn’t breathing. She was unresponsive in an inflatable swimming pool that was being used as a playpen, officials said, according to WTSP.
The child’s mother, Arhonda Tillman, 35, told deputies that she tried to call for help, but “they were busy,” WTSP reported.
Judd said Tillman and Johnson appeared to be well-fed and that there was food in the home, WTVT reported.
Johnson claimed that the child had eaten a sandwich and chicken nuggets recently, but there was no food found in the girl’s stomach during the medical examination.
Tillman also told authorities she is four months pregnant, but Judd said he is not sure if she has had any prenatal care. She will begin receiving the care while she is in jail, according to WTVT.
Johnson and Tillman are charged with aggravated child abuse, but additional charges are expected to be filed once the investigation is complete.
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