Now the mother, Kathleen Marie Steele, is charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child.
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The first call came on July 29, when Steele allegedly dropped her three-day-old daughter on her head during a fire drill at a hotel.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gulatieri speaks during Thursday’s news conference. The 6 year old and Steele’s 13-year-old son were placed in therapeutic foster care, deputies said. Her late husband died of cancer in 2011, Gualtieri said.
Steele was reported to child services on two recent occasions, but investigators determined there was no further action required, Gualtieri said, adding that “all protocols were followed”.
The boy later admitted to investigators what he had done, said Gualtieri.
However, the suspect then ignored the boy when she got back into the auto and he told her something was wrong.
“I took the baby, and I slammed her like this, and slammed her down, and pushed her up into the ceiling”, Gualtiari recalled the boy saying.
By the time Steele became fully aware of baby Kathleen’s condition, she had probably been dead for hours, the sheriff said.
Neither DCF nor the sheriff’s office had any prior involvement with the family. No evidence of abuse was found, Gualtieri said. She went back, retrieved the debit card and then went on the Enterprise before ultimately heading home.
On Aug. 2, authorities were called by an unidentified individual claiming all three children were unsupervised. They couple reportedly tried to have children for several years, but Kathleen suffered multiple miscarriages. So, after leaving the cell phone fix store, she headed to Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
Gualtieri said Steele was “ill-equipped to have a baby”.
While Steele was inside the business, the baby began crying, Gulatieri said. The 6-year-old boy took his sister out of her auto seat and began flipping her back and forth, the sheriff said. “The skull was cracked in numerous places”. He said it was one of the worst things he’s ever seen.
The sheriff says at just 13-days-old, the little girl was killed at the hands of her brother. He and his 3-year-old brother have been removed from the home and are in the custody of the Department of Children and Families.
Steele was scheduled to be evaluated by investigators August 1, but she rescheduled the appointment.
The 6-year-old boy will likely face no charges. “Her face had just been pummelled”.
The neighbor, he said, “recognized the infant was deceased”. She told him to dial 911.
The baby girl, Kathleen Bridget Steele, was pronounced dead at St. Petersburg General Hospital Monday evening.
The 13-day-old baby started to cry while being stuck in the hot auto, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told the media.
He added, the thought of a 6-year-old boy violently beating his infant sister to death is troubling enough – but there’s another troubling aspect to this case. Sheriff Gualtieri says the six-year-old boy will not be charged, and was very forthcoming and described what he did in great detail, using a doll.
Steele remains in the Pinellas County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bond.
He said the boy, who will not be charged, used a doll to describe to police what he had done.
The victim was 13 days old.
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Neighbours of the North Redington Beach family told WTSP that the 6-year-old boy was not happy to have another sibling.
