On Tuesday, the parents of a 12-year-old girl in Texas were arrested because police say they didn’t get her medical help right away for a life-threatening injury and instead tried to treat her with a drink.
The 12-year-old girl who died was named Miranda Sipps, a student at Jourdanton Junior High School from Christine, a small town south of San Antonio. Atascosa County Sheriff David Soward said this at a press conference on Wednesday.
Sipps, who died on Monday, had been badly hurt since last Thursday, but her parents did not take her to the hospital, according to authorities who did not want to give more information about the injury. A first-degree felony charge has been brought against her mother, Denise Balbaneda, 36, and husband, Gerald Gonzales, 40. They are accused of hurting a child seriously by neglect.
The case was looked into by detectives after the Atacosa County Sheriff’s Office got a call saying Sipps had stopped breathing. When the police arrived, she was still living. They took her to the hospital, but she died soon after.
Officers who were looking into the case heard that Sipps died on Thursday from her injuries. They said that her parents didn’t get medical help for days, even though their daughter was “mentally and physically incapacitated and nonresponsive,” Soward said.
“She wasn’t talking; all she could do was move her hands and eyes around a little,” he said.
Sipps’s injuries are still not clear, but Soward said, “It had nothing to do with school.”
He said, “We have a story from the mother, but we are not ready to release that right now.”
Reporters also learned that Soward told them that Balbaneda tried to treat her “mainly unconscious” daughter with things like a smoothie with vitamins and, at one point, air.
In short, he said, “They thought they could nurse her back to health.” We don’t think they wanted the attention this would bring them if the girl got hurt, which is a strange way of thinking, but that’s what they thought.
The investigation is still going on because the police are still waiting for the final medical report. It’s not clear if the parents have lawyers who are defending them.
After Sipps’ death, a GoFundMe page was set up to help pay for his burial. Pricilla Chapa, who set up the GoFundMe, wrote on it that Sipps was their niece and that she was taken from them “far too soon in an unexpected way,” leaving behind love, laughter, and memories that they will always treasure.
+ There are no comments
Add yours