A Missouri woman whose 1-year-old child died after she didn’t feed him for up to 43 hours said a migraine made her do it.
Alyssa Wehmeyer, 21, was due in court Thursday to face charges of abuse or neglect of a child resulting in death, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said. The day before, officers from the Cape Girardeau Police Department had called in the highway patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime to “investigate a suspicious death,” according to the statement.
“During the investigation, it was determined the child suffered from severe malnutrition and neglect, resulting in the child’s death,” the highway patrol said.
An autopsy concluded that the baby died of dehydration, according to a probable cause affidavit filed Monday that also noted investigators had “found very little evidence of food in the stomach.”
Weymeyer told investigators she had last fed her child on Wednesday Feb. 26 and changed their diaper the next day before putting the baby to bed at 6:30. The toddler woke up crying at about 2 a.m. Friday, and she held them for 30-40 minutes before going back to bed, she said.
At about 1 p.m. on Friday Wehmeyer found her child blue-lipped and not breathing. The child also had severe blisters from diaper rash, and Wehmeyer admitted she hadn’t changed the baby since the day before.
The child “hadn’t eaten in over 36 hours and was in the crib unattended for nearly 19 hours,” investigators alleged in the affidavit.
Wehmeyer also said she hadn’t tried to seek medical help for the baby. Instead, she had taken three Excedrin for a migraine and lay down for a nap.
All told, the arrest warrant stated, Wehmeyer had not fed her child “for approximately 43 hours” and thus “knowingly caused the child to suffer physical injury” that led to death.
Wehmeyer was being held on a $100,000.00 cash bond pending Thursday’s court appearance, the highway patrol’s statement said.
