COCOA, Fla. — The parents of a 1-month-old Cocoa, Florida, boy were arrested Thursday after investigators claimed their child died because they allegedly failed to check on him for at least six hours.
Superiah Campbell, 19, and Cameron Dowden, 21, were each charged with a count of manslaughter of a child for the May 10th death of their son.
Cocoa police officers were called to the couple’s apartment unit at about 12:15 p.m. on May 10.
The 911 caller told officials the child had stopped breathing and was cold to the touch, investigators said.
Emergency personnel tried to resuscitate the child when they arrived at the apartment, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
After investigating the child’s death, police said they found that evidence showed the parents had not checked on the child for at least six hours, leading to the discovery of the boy in an unresponsive state.
“By failing to check on the child for over six hours, the defendants consciously did an act, or followed a course of conduct that they must have known, or reasonably should have known, was likely to cause death or great bodily harm,” Cocoa Police Department Detective Debra Titkanich wrote in an affidavit. “Both parents showed a reckless disregard for human life.”
Investigators had not determined an official cause of death but said it appeared the child suffocated.
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