Newborn baby killed by 6-year-old brother; mother charged

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Newborn baby killed by 6-year-old brother; mother charged

Kelli Kennedy, Associated Press

Updated 8:36 pm, Friday, August 12, 2016

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A 6-year-old boy beat his newborn sister to death after their 62-year-old mother left her young children alone in a car for more than a half hour while she went to get her cellphone fixed, authorities on Florida's Gulf Coast said.

Now the mother, Kathleen Marie Steele, is charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child.

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gulatieri said she went to a cellphone repair business in St. Petersburg on Monday and left her children in the car — the infant, a 3-year-old and a 6-year-old.

While Steele was gone, the baby began crying and the 6-year-old began beating her to make her stop, the sheriff said.

"He was tossing that baby around like a rag doll," the sheriff said during a press conference Thursday, shortly after Steele was arrested.



Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Mother-charged-after-son-beats-newborn-sister-to-9138506.php

[WheelWalker]

1. A cell phone.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

2. Irresponsible parenting. Also... "62-year-old mother." Wow! The article...

... indicated that she was the biological mother too.

[StevieM]

4. She probably used donor eggs. (eom)

[Buckeye_Democrat]

6. That might be it. n/t

[womanofthehills]

9. She also did the tv rounds older mother thing - frozen eggs

sounds mentally ill - cops said her baby was dead/dying and she was putting away groceries

[Glorfindel]

3. A 62 year old has a newborn?

And a six year old beat his baby sister to death? Things just get curiouser and curiouser.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

5. My mother was supposedly "old" when I was born in her 40's.

The article stated that she was inseminated by her deceased husband's frozen sperm.

I kind of hate that I'm distracted by her age instead of focusing on the tragic death.

[Glorfindel]

11. Me, too. My mother was 40 and my siblings were 14, 12, and 10 when I was born

Consequently I got treated as the first "grandchild" in my family, and had more in common with my nieces and nephews than my siblings. I used to tease my parents that I was the accidental result of their joy at the US victory in the Battle of the Bulge. But no matter how one looks at the current item up for discussion, the death of a newborn is a horrible tragedy compounded by the fact that it was at the hands of a six year old.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

12. I was close in age to nieces and nephews too. A sister is 21 years older...

... than me!

I was actually pretty close to my oldest brother (17 years older) when I grew up. He seemed to take me under his wing and helped make me a pretty precocious kid. I was amazed by the lack of knowledge among kids at my elementary school.

Yeah, I feel bad about being so distracted by the mother's age given the horrible death of that baby! The brother is either dumb (even for a 6 year old!) or worse, and obviously the mother should've never left them alone in the car in the first place.

[riversedge]

14. Seems she wanted more kids--even at her age--which is fine--but also

she was--is --not able to provide or care for them. Three young kids. She needs help--psychological help. I know it is too late for the baby. Only wish someone had intervened before it was too late.


....Gulatieri painted a picture of a single mother who seemed overwhelmed and ill equipped to care for her three young children in the months leading up to the baby's death. He said Kathleen Steele's husband died of cancer in 2011 and she paid a significant sum to be artificially inseminated with his frozen sperm to conceive her 3-year-old son and newborn daughter, who was also named Kathleen.

She told authorities she even hoped to have more children, Gulatieri said, even though friends and family said she was struggling to raise the children on her own. The two boys were "running amok and were unsupervised" to the point that an anonymous caller contacted the state's child protective hotline about them on Aug. 2.

This photo provided by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office shows Kathleen Marie Steele, 62. Steele was arrested Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016, on a charge of aggravated manslaughter of a child for the death of her 13-day-old baby girl. The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said her 6-year-old son brutally beat her infant daughter on Monday when the mother left them alone in a minivan for at least 38 minutes. (Pinellas County Sheriff's Office via AP) Photo: AP / Pinellas County Sheriff's Office

Photo: AP
This photo provided by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office shows Kathleen Marie Steele, 62. Steele was arrested Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016, on a charge of aggravated manslaughter of a child for the death of her 13-day-old baby girl. The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said her 6-year-old son brutally beat her infant daughter on Monday when the mother left them alone in a minivan for at least 38 minutes. (Pinellas County Sheriff's Office via AP)

Steele — who once lived in a half-million-dollar home — filed for bankruptcy last year, and an accidental fire forced the family to stay in a hotel last month. While there, the fire alarm went off and Steele told deputies she put little Kathleen in the car carrier but tripped going down the stairs and the baby tumbled out, striking her head. The baby, diagnosed with a minor brain bleed, stayed for two nights in the hospital, Gulatieri said. It was reported to the child abuse hotline, but the sheriff's office said they did a thorough investigation and it appeared to be an accident...................

[SpankMe]

7. Six year old boys don't do this.

Clearly, the boy has problems. He needs to be watch very carefully far into adulthood.

[TexasBushwhacker]

10. Learned behavior

He probably gets beaten when he misbehaves.

[Judi Lynn]

13. I have a sad feeling you are on target. So sad. Just passing it on, it's part of his personal world.

He's probably seen people turning to violence without a second thought, and certainly no remorse.

[Deuce]

15. Exactly...that was my first thought.

[EL34x4]

16. Or the opposite. He's so thoroughly neglected he's turned feral.

Sounds like the mom was so far in over her head, she didn't know what to do when it came to raising her kids.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

8. Florida is the Donald Trump of states.

Just when you think they can't top themselves this time, they do.

Even for Florida this is weird.