Jacksonville mother arrested for starving her five-month-old baby to death in case of severe child neglect
JACKSONVILLE, FLORDIA: A mother from Jacksonville is currently in jail on allegations of child abuse and neglect following the death of her infant. Tania McGowan, 23, was arrested last week, in the third week of December. According to a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office arrest complaint, the severly underweight baby weighed only around seven pounds at five months of age.
According to the arrest report, medical workers with Jacksonville Fire and Rescue (JFRD) responded to a 911 call about an unresponsive newborn at a property in the 14000 block of Duval Road at approximately 6.17 p.m. on December 11. When first responders arrived on the scene, they found the infant and took him to the University of Florida Health. Shortly after arriving at the facility, he was pronounced dead.
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The medical professionals told a detective that the infant was "emaciated," weighing only about seven pounds at the time of his death. The baby was "extremely malnourished to the point that the victim's stomach was caved and his rib cage protruded," according to the detective on the scene, as reported by Law and Crime. According to the detective, the victim's face was emaciated, and his cheeks were sunken in. The police investigated McGowan while they probed the case. The house was very sparsely furnished and stocked with only some furniture and a single container of baby formula and two bottles, as per their report.
Surveillance footage of the woman's home was presented to investigators by the management authority of her apartment complex and it shows that she harshly handled the infant. As per the video, "Tania McGowan can be seen laying the victim on a couch and then walks away. The victim is covered in a baby blanket," the arrest report states. "McGowan returns to the victim, picks him up, and then forcefully slams him back onto the couch. She grabs the victim by the head and face and forcefully twists the victim's head to the side. She then covers the victim's head with the blanket and repeatedly strikes the victim on the back with an open hand," as reported by Law and Crime.
In the video, McGowan then "grabs the victim by the face and twists his head" before again covering him with the blanket and striking him "forcefully" on the back." before re-covering him with the blanket and beating him "forcefully" on the back. Finally, she was spotted to have taken a large throw pillow from the couch and placed it "over the infant's head before walking away."
McGowan allegedly told investigators that she had not taken her son to a doctor since his birth in July. She also claimed that she noticed the infant "slimming down" but felt that the toddler's height was increasing. She is being held on a $1.5 million bond and is expected to appear in Duval County Court on January 5, 2023.