Articles labeled: baby starved to death

A Tuscon, Arizona couple has been arrested and charged after their 6-month-old infant daughter was found dead.

The parents Terri and Scott sullivan are in the Pima County Jail. They are each charged with one count of child abuse.

It was at an east side apartment on South Pantano Road where police say, they found 6-week-old Kimberly Sullivan dead.

Victor Stevens was moving out of the apartment next door. He says he saw the father try to save the baby’s life.

“I saw and heard ‘the baby’s not breathing the baby’s not breathing.’ I really didn’t know what was going on, and I saw the father trying to give the baby mouth to mouth.”

Investigators say, at birth, Kimberly weighed 7 pounds 12 ounces. When she died she weighed 5-pounds, 12 ounces her skin was sagging and they could see her ribs.

Given the description of squalor Kristin Marie Phillips was living in when she allegedly starved her 11-month-old daughter, Alexis, to death, our armchair psychology degree would point to her suffering from some major depression — perhaps not only post-partum related, but also from extreme loneliness caused by her husband’s deployment? Whatever the reason, what an awful and horrific way for a child to die.

Don Ledford, spokesman for U.S. Attorney John F. Wood, said Phillips faces at least life in prison if convicted. Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to pursue the death penalty.

Emergency responders and military police were called to Phillips’ home on Feb. 21 in response to two 911 calls, according to an affidavit filed in the case.

Written by an FBI investigator, the affidavit does not say who made the calls but describes the filthy conditions emergency personnel found.

Spoiled food, trash and dirty laundry were littered throughout the house, which had a “strong odor of urine and feces.”

Three of Phillips’ other children, ages 2, 5 and 14, were found alive at the house and have been placed in the custody of the Missouri Department of Social Services.