Utah babysitter charged with murder of 5-month-old baby as parents claim daughter had bruise on cheek
If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH: Paulina Carmona-Simbron, a Utah babysitter, has been held against bond for murdering a five-month-old girl. The woman was booked on Friday, October 21, and is in police custody at Salt Lake County Jail, as per online jail records. It was on October 13, 2022, when emergency crews arrived at Carmona-Simbron's Taylorsville home after a report of an unresponsive infant, identified as Aitana Aguilar. The record shows that Carmona-Simbron, 47, told the police she heard "the infant cough while sleeping in her crib just before the child stopped breathing."
According to the charging documents obtained by KSLTV, doctors at Primary Children’s Hospital determined the deceased girl had "severe retinal hemorrhaging and severe 'tearing in the brain.'" The family was told that the baby wouldn’t survive more than 72 hours due to the severity of her injuries. Aitana died the very next day on October 14 after sustaining fatal injuries.
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The parents posted on Aitana’s GoFundMe page, about their heartbreaking loss, and called her a "sweet little angel." "No one should ever bury their daughter this way," Guillermo and Rosario Aguilar wrote. They continued, “[F]or those who knew our little angel Aitana we ask you for your help for the funeral expenses because we are going thru a really hard and devastating time in our life and we will always love her with all our heart and she will be forever missed by all our family and friends.”
The records obtained by ABC4 revealed that Carmona-Simbron had told family and neighbors that she wanted to take care of children even though she didn’t possess any formal training or a license to care for children. As per the charging documents, the accused had previously taken care of Aitana four times, and alleged that she never had any issues.
The record also states that their daughter came home with a bruise on one of her cheeks and Carmona-Simbron claimed it was due to a toy on which she laid face down, as per People.
"This injury would not have occurred from lying down prone, even if over an object. This finding does, however, elicit significant concern for underlying child physical abuse in the absence of an appropriate history," according to the charging documents, a doctor reportedly told authorities.