Police have confirmed that the young boy will not be facing criminal charges as “the mistake is with the adult. not a 6-year-old boy”. The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office arrested the children’s mother, Kathleen Marie Steele, 62, and booked her with aggravated manslaughter of a child, according to Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.
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Gualtieri said Steele left her infant, a 3-year-old and a 6-year-old locked in a van with the windows rolled up while she went into a cellphone fix store in St. Petersburg.
Police said Steele drove to a shop in St Petersburg, Florida on Monday, and left her three children, aged six, three, and 13 days, in the auto with the doors and windows shut.
A six-year-old boy beat his newborn sister to death after their mother left them alone in a vehicle, police have said. The girl was taken to St. Petersburg General Hospital, where she was officially declared dead. She suffered head trauma and had multiple skull fractures, an autopsy revealed.
Steele had been out running errands with her 2-week-old daughter, 6-year-old son and 3-year-old son, Philip S. Steele.
Pinellas County School District spokeswoman Lisa Wolf said the school system will work with DCF to lay out an educational plan for the child. She stopped at another business, then drove to their rented home in North Reddington Beach.
He described the mother as “aloof” when emergency responders showed up at her home to attend to the child.
Neighbors say the 6-year-old brother apparently didn’t like the idea of a new baby. When the baby was just 3-days-old, she dropped her down the stairs at a hotel. Instead, she called a neighbour who is a nurse.
Yet somehow, the sheriff said, Kathleen Steele failed to recognize baby Kathleen’s condition.
Steele’s two sons are now being cared for in separate therapeutic foster homes while the investigation continues. Those injuries ultimately caused the baby’s death, deputies said.
“(She and her husband) made choices later in life that don’t make sense to most people, myself included, as far as having those kids at that age”, Ligrani said.
He said that the child took his sister out of her carseat and began beating her to make her stop screaming. At just 3-days-old, the baby fell from her vehicle carrier down the stairs of a Treasure Island hotel.
The elder Kathleen traveled to New York City late past year to have a doctor perform the artificial insemination that resulted in the baby’s birth, Gualtieri said.
In 2009, Steele appeared on the defunct reality TV show, “I’m Pregnant And…55 Years Old” that aired on USA Network. “We decided not to charge (the 6-year-old)”.
Steele was also under investigation by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office Child Protection Investigation Division at the time.
“I’ve dealt with a lot of kids who have done awful things”, Kaliebe said. The nurse realized the baby was dead and called 911, according to authorities.
At a press conference on Thursday, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri detailed how Steele had become pregnant with her daughter at 62. That’s how their 6-year-old son was born.
When paramedics arrived, Steele did not appear to be concerned for the child’s health. “We couldn’t have prevented this from happening”, say Sheriff Gualtieri.
A widow who gave birth to the first of her three children at age 55, Steele seemed detached, the sheriff said.
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Elementary school officials said the boy will not return to the school.
