A mother has been charged with a felony after she allegedly put her 1-month-old baby down for a nap in an oven by accident, causing her death.
via People:
The woman, identified as Kansas City, Missouri resident Mariah Thomas, put her newborn baby daughter in an oven earlier this week, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced in a Saturday press release.
According to the release, police found the child on Friday after responding to a 911 call that reported “a non-breathing infant.” Upon their arrival, officers discovered the baby with “apparent burns.”
Authorities were told that Thomas was “putting the child down for a nap and accidentally placed the child in the oven instead of the crib,” the prosecutor said.
The Kansas City Fire Department, which also responded to the scene of the alleged crime, declared the baby dead at the scene.
A criminal complaint states that the 1-month-old was found “in the living room lying in a car seat just inside of the front door” and “had sustained apparent thermal injuries on various parts of her body.”
“She was clothed in a bodysuit over a diaper. The clothing appeared to have melted onto the diaper, and it was very dirty, possibly burned on the backside,” according to the complaint.
A “baby blanket with significant burn marks” was also found on the property and collected by police, the complain said.
Before police were contacted, they said in their complaint, the baby’s grandfather returned home and could smell smoke in the home. He later found the baby dead in her crib. Thomas then allegedly said that she “accidentally put her in the oven.”
Thomas now faces a “Class A felony of Endangering the Welfare of a Child in the 1st Degree, Death of a Child,” according to the prosecutor.
If found guilty, she will receive a minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum of life.
It is not immediately clear if Thomas has retained an attorney to comment on her behalf.
We’re not sure if we believe that was an accident.
