An Indiana mother of three was arrested and charged with neglect after her sickly three-month-old son died of COVID inside their filthy home while she allegedly left him along with her other kids to go vent about the stress of being a single mom.
Madelissa Flores, 26, of Marion County, was booked on Friday for the death of her infant, who Indianapolis Metropolitan Police found unresponsive on November 28, 2021 as bystanders performed CPR on the baby, the Indy Star reported.
A Indianapolis Metropolitan Police officer arrived to perform mouth-to-mouth breathing before paramedics arrived to transport the baby to Riley Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The autopsy report revealed the infant died of complications from COVID-19. The report also indicated that his lungs were bleeding and that he suffered fractures in both femurs.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police officials were at the home earlier that day investigating Flores, a single-mother, for her history of child abuse going back to 2020, according to the Star.
During the visit, the baby was described as ‘gasping for air’ but receiving no medication inside a home filled with garbage where a 9-year-old was left in charge to watch over his siblings.
‘Madelissa stated that she left to go to a friend’s house because she is [a] single mom that is under a lot of stress and needed to talk to someone and did not have anyone available to watch her children while she was gone,’ police wrote in court documents obtained by the Star.
The family lives in an apartment on East 42nd Street, in Indianapolis. The home was described as not having electricity and covered in trash and used diapers
The baby, who was described as ‘gasping for air’ the day before his death, was found unresponsive and taken to Riley Children’s Hospital. The autopsy report revealed the infant died of complications from COVID-19
Child abuse investigator Det. Daniel Henson had interviewed Flores the morning before the incident as he checked the conditions inside the residence, according to the court documents.
Henson said there was no electricity in the apartment and that the floor was covered in used diapers and trash that included a marijuana cigar and an open bottle of antifreeze.
There was also no food in the refrigerator, alcohol bottles were ‘left in the open,’ and a foul odor throughout the apartment, Henson wrote.
He added that conditions matched previous complaints at the Indiana Department of Child Services in 2020 and 2021, which alleged Flores left her kids unattended for hours inside the squalid home, where her 9-year-old son would be tasked with caring for his sibling and visiting neighbors for food.
There were also reports of a rodent infestation at the residence.
The Indiana Department of Child Services and Indiana Metropolitan Police Department did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
During the visit hours before the baby’s death, Henson spoke with one of the neighbors whose son was shocked by the conditions inside the apartment.
The boy had gone over to play at the apartment with Flores’ 9-year-old son the prior day when he recorded a video of the infant ‘alone in the dark house, screaming with no adults in sight,’ Henson wrote in court documents.
When the neighbor discovered that the children were left unattended at the house while Flores was out, she instructed her son to bring the children over.
The infant was described as wearing a soiled, wet diaper, and was having a hard time breathing as he coughed.
Henson added in the court documents that the baby had been carried by his 7-year-old sister, who ‘had difficulty carrying [the infant] and often dropped him,’ the Star reported.
Flores came back to pick up the children before leaving them home again, the neighbor told Henson.
When the detective spoke with Flores, she said the baby was congested and wheezing, and was ‘trying to gasp for air’ on the day before his death. She told Henson she was trying to ‘treat it naturally before going to any doctors,’ the Star reported.
Although she told Henson she was present at the home on November 27 and 28, she later admitted that she had gone out to dinner and was venting to a friend afterwards.
She left them unattended again to visit a friend and vent, and by the time she came back, her baby was not breathing, the Star reported.
Henson added that the fractures in the baby’s femurs were common among children who are physically abuses through violent shacking due to their limbs being forcibly yanked.
Flores is detained at the Marion County Jail and face with two charges of neglect of a dependent resulting in catastrophic injury and one charge of neglect of a dependent.
