(NewsSpace.com) – When parents place their children in the hands of a babysitter, they expect that their child will be watched over. Yet, all too often, the caretakers take their eyes off kids, and they go missing or get hurt. Sadly, a three-year-old Indiana girl died while in the care of her cousin, and her mother is now demanding justice.
Jill Humphries dropped her three-year-old daughter, Kenna, off with her 16-year-old niece in October and went to work. While there, she received a call from her sister, who was frantic, saying that there was something wrong with Kenna and she was receiving CPR. The toddler was rushed to the hospital, where doctors pronounced her dead before Humphries could arrive.
When she arrived at the hospital, Humphries, who is a single mother of three, rocked her daughter for hours before she would let the coroners take her away. She said her daughter was “ice cold; she had sewage in her hair and her eyes.”
Ric Hertel, the Ripley County prosecutor, said the child had gotten away from the babysitter and was later found in the septic tank. There was evidence that the little girl had moved its lid, but it’s not clear whether she went into it willingly or fell inside. He called the incident a “terrible accident,” and no charges were filed against Humphries’ niece, a move that angers the mother. “She neglected my child,” she said. “She took something from me that’s irreplaceable,” according to The New York Post.
In the absence of official criminal charges, the mother is considering filing a civil lawsuit as she struggles to “figure out a way to survive without [her] beautiful little girl.”
Humphries’ sister died two days after her daughter did, and she said the family did not celebrate the holidays this year due to the losses.
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