Sickening evidence has been released alleging Southwest Arkansas parents, Charles Elliott and Erica Shryock, left their newborn infant unattended while rats attacked the child 75 to 100 times over the course of several hours, authorities say. One of the bites to the head was so severe that the child’s skull was visible, reported ER staff.
Elliott, 19, and Shryock, 19, are in custody, each facing a charge of first-degree endangering the welfare of a minor after the 15-day-old girl was transported to the Magnolia Regional Medical Center in Magnolia covered in rodent bites.
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The girl, estimated to weigh about 5 pounds, has since undergone reconstructive surgery to address the forehead wound. A physician at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, Ark., later noted that the child had “severe skin destruction from rat feeding, and stated that it would have taken hours to occur and (the) patient would have been in distress during the process,” Magnolia, Ark., police reported.
The Arkansas Children’s Hospital doctor surmised that the couple would have to have been absent or incapacitated to not respond to the child’s screams.