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LARGO, FL – Police have arrested 62-year-old Kathleen Steele after she left her 6-year-old son alone with her newborn, and he proceeded to beat the baby to death.
Steele has been charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child after she went to a cellphone store to have her phone repaired, leaving her 6 and 3-year-old son alone inside her minivan with their 13-day-old sister.
When the baby girl started crying, her older brother killed her by beating the ever-living crap out of her. But before I get into those details, let’s discuss the events that lead up to them. Besides, I’m sure some of you have already asked yourselves why a 62-year-old woman has a newborn.
Back in 2009, Steele and her late husband, Philip, was featured on the reality show I’m Pregnant and 55 Years Old. She explained that she worked as a broker, putting in 60-80 hours a week, when she met her husband in her 40s.
The couple tried for 12 years to conceive a child via vitro fertilization, and Steele finally became pregnant in 2009 at the age of 55. Her husband would die from cancer two years later. Using frozen sperm from her dead husband, she would proceed to have her two youngest children.
On July 29, the baby was only three days old and brought to the hospital with minor bleeding on the brain. Steele told doctors that they were staying at a hotel temporarily because of an accidental fire at her residence, and that a fire alarm at the hotel had went off in the middle of the night.
As she was carrying the baby down the hotel stairs, she tripped and the baby fell out of her carrier. The baby stayed at the hospital for two nights before being released back to Steele. Because of a call that had been made to a child abuse hotline, Steele was to meet with investigators on Aug 1. Steele canceled the meeting and rescheduled for Aug 10.
On August 2, the Department of Children and Families visited her after getting reports of inadequate supervision. They found nothing wrong during their visit and took no action. On Monday, Steele took the baby to the doctor because she was not eating. The pediatrician found nothing wrong with the baby and noticed no signs of injuries.
After leaving the doctor’s office, Steele went to a cellphone repair shop to have her phone repaired. She turned off her minivan, rolled up the windows and went inside — leaving her three kids in the vehicle.
The 6-year-old would later tell police that the newborn started crying and he tried calming her by mimicking what his mother did. This consisted of the boy repeatedly slamming the baby’s head into the minivan’s ceiling, dropping her on the floor, flipping the baby over and over and beating her face into a bloody pulp.
“The baby was beaten and traumatized,” Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said. “There was gross swelling in her face. Her skull was cracked in numerous places. It was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen, especially for a 13-day-old.”
When Steele returned to the minivan 38 minutes later, the 6-year-old told his mother something was seriously wrong with the baby. Steele ignored him and stopped at a car rental business before driving to their rented home. That’s when Steele noticed the baby’s injuries.
Despite the noticeable injuries to the newborn’s face, Steele decided not to call 911 but rather call a neighbor who is a nurse. She found the baby dead but performed CPR until paramedics arrived. While rescue crews were trying to revive her daughter, Steele was reportedly putting groceries away in the kitchen.
When police interviewed Steele that evening, deputies say she was “aloof” and never asked about the condition of her daughter. When she was informed her baby was dead, Steele reportedly replied: “I guess I have to plan a funeral.”
Steele was arrested and being held in the Pinellas County jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.
The sheriff said the “very bright” 6-year-old will not be charged, claiming he is just as much a victim in this situation as his sister.
“The mistake is with the adult Kathleen Steele,” Gualtieri said, “not a 6-year-old boy.”
He went on to say that Steele was trying to turn the boy into a surrogate father for his siblings. Both boys are now in DCF custody.
This article was written by Morbid for The Dreamin Demon - the Internet's self-appointed buzzkill.