A Missouri mother gave a ridiculous excuse for leaving her one year old without any food or water for nearly two days, resulting in the toddler’s death.
Alyssa Wehmeyer, 21, said she was suffering from a migraine and decided to take a nap when she left her baby unfed for 43 hours – and woke up to find the child not breathing with their lips blue inside their crib on Friday, according to court documents obtained by the Tri-City Herald.
Officers with the Cape Girardeau Police Department said they found the child’s death suspicious, and asked the Missouri State Highway Patrol to investigate what had happened, KFVS reports.
When troopers then questioned Wehmeyer about what had happened, she said she had last fed her child between 5pm and 6pm on February 26, the probable cause affidavit states.
She then put the baby to bed at around 6.30pm on February 27 – a full 24 hours after Wehmeyer said the child had last eaten.
A little over seven hours later, the child woke up crying, at which point, Wehmeyer said she held her toddler for at least 30 minutes, before she placed the baby back in its crib.
When Wehmeyer then went to check on the one year old at around 1pm on February 28, she said she found the child not breathing.
At that point it had been 43 hours since the child was last fed, authorities noted. For 19 of those hours, the toddler was also left in their crib unattended without their diaper being changed.
By the time police arrived to the scene, they found ‘severe blisters’ on the child from a diaper rash and noted that the baby showed signs of ‘severe malnutrition and neglect, resulting in the child’s death.’
An ensuing autopsy later determined that the baby died of dehydration, noting that there was ‘very little evidence of food in her stomach,’ Law & Crime reports.
Upon questioning, Wehmeyer admitted that she should have taken her child to a doctor or at least changed the baby’s diaper ‘but she had a migraine’ and had laid down for a nap after taking three Excedrin pills, the affidavit states.
The young mother is now being held at the Scott County Jail on a $100,000 cash-only bond as she faces one count of abuse or neglect of a child – resulting in death.
Wehmeyer is scheduled to make her first court appearance on Thursday. It is unclear if she has retained an attorney who can speak on her behalf.