The other children were put into therapeutic foster care.
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Sheriff Gualtieri said Steele’s husband had died several years ago of cancer, but she had his sperm frozen and was artificially inseminated with her husband’s sperm by a doctor in NY.
Steele headed down the stairs, but tripped, dropping baby Kathleen, who then tumbled out of the carrier and struck her head. When the baby started crying, Kathleen’s older son brutally beat the newborn to death.
Gualtiari says the girl had probably been dead hours by the time her mother noticed.
Authorities said all three children are considered to be victims of child abuse.
The first brush with authorities came on July 29 while the family was staying in a local hotel following an accidental fire at their home.
Instead of seeking medical attention, Steele drove to a auto rental business and tried to renew the contract for the van she was renting.
Steele was under investigation by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office Child Protection Investigation Division at the time.
Days later, a seemingly frazzled Steele took the three children to a pediatrician amid concerns the 13-day-old baby wasn’t eating.
At just 3 days old, the baby fell from her auto carrier down the stairs of a hotel.
Steele’s pregnancy with her 6-year-old boy was the topic of a reality TV show called “I’m Pregnant and 55 Years Old” back in 2009.
In the show, which aired on TLC, Steele said she had tried to have a baby for years, but was not successful.
“You’re left sitting in a hot auto and you’re alone and you don’t know what to do and the baby starts crying”, she said. Both of her sons are now in the custody of DCF.
When officers later spoke to the boy, he immediately admitted what he had done, describing in detail how he had hurt the baby.
Towey says the brain remembers everything especially traumatic childhood experiences. The baby’s skull was fractured in several places. The nurse was the person who called 911.
Despite Steele being alerted that something “serious” had happened to the two-week-old, police allege she proceeded with her errands before bringing the injured child to a neighbor who is a registered nurse.
The neighbor recognized right away that the infant was deceased but performed CPR until paramedics arrived.
The 6-year-old brother picked up the baby and dropped her on the floor of the vehicle, then “slammed” her around the vehicle, the sheriff said.
“The things that he said and his awareness level and how astute that he is, it’s fantastic really”. “But by that point, it was too late”, Gualtieri said.
But the boy also had aggression issues, he said.
“By numerous witness accounts, Kathleen Steel was an inattentive parent and (the two boys) were largely unsupervised and had very serious behavior injuries”. His school district confirmed that he would not be returning to Lakewood Elementary in the fall.
He told investigators, “sometimes people make very big mistakes”. She had been raising the children by herself.
The sheriff says at just 13-days-old, the little girl was killed at the hands of her brother.
Back in 2010, Steele appeared in a reality show “55 and Pregnant”.
Now Steele is no stranger to child protective investigators.
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Steele was scheduled to be evaluated by investigators August 1, but she canceled and rescheduled. They said she disregarded him and stopped at another business before going home.
