A Pennsylvania couple has been jailed in the starvation death of their 23-month-old daughter, who weighed just 10 pounds when she died last month.
Andrea Dusha, 26, and Michael Wright Jr., 32, were charged Thursday with criminal homicide, endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment in the death of Lydia Wright.
Police say the toddler began foaming at the mouth and stopped breathing after she was left in a car seat for over 13 hours at the family’s squalid Uniontown home.
An autopsy determined Lydia died of dehydration and malnutrition. Fayette County caseworkers took two siblings into custody.
Online court records didn’t list attorneys for the couple, who face a preliminary hearing March 29. They were ordered jailed without bond, which is required by Pennsylvania law in most homicide cases.
Police say the little girl was left in her car seat for hours at time. According to a criminal complaint, the child was left in a car seat from 9 p.m. Feb. 23 until 10:30 the next morning. That’s when her mother tried to get her to drink a mixture of water, Gatorade and Pedialyte only to see foam coming from the toddler’s nose and mouth as her eyes rolled back in her head, police said.
Dusha rushed the child, who had also stopped breathing, to a hospital where she died, police said.
The family was living at the home without water or sewage services, police say, and investigators also found bottles of urine and dirty diapers, unwashed dishes, tables and counters, and a toilet filled with feces.
The couple has not been charged with using illegal drugs, but police found a syringe and numerous open prescription pill bottles in the bathroom, according to the complaint.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
This couple should be removed from society and I don’t mean jailed.
Better yet give them the same treatment as the child!!!
I, for one, believe in torture. As Irene suggests, give them the same treatment.
Please, sterilize, jail and give these horrors bread and water for the rest of their miserable lives while they are sitting buckled into car seats!
What a shame, this headline is already giving them the “sick” defense. They knew they were wrong and got scared enough to take her to the hospital. Smart enough to do that and know right from wrong. Throw them in the general population in prison and see how they fare. Even murderers and thieves hate child abusers.
Mind failed- for sure Not normal. YES~> NORMAL !!
Which is what most people are EXPECTED TO ACT LIKE!! ( normal, is a word, which now days, we find a RIOT AGAINST IT
WHEN WE USE IT, BUT …TOO BAD!!! There is a normal, an expected behaviour from each at all time, and there are sick, and there are morons, and! There are bastards without the NORMAL INSTINCTS OF LOVE TOWARDS THEIR CHILDREN, AND THERE ARE THE WEAK, THE
ABNOXIOUS IMBECILS THAT FIND FUN AT DESTROYING THEIR LIVES AND THEIR FAMILY,,,, FUN! To escape reality, into substances
To addictions… I am only human… But for those, i have no respect …nor compassion…. Idiotic selfish, cowards… Trash!! SEEK HELP!!!
And above all : DO NOT !!!! Do not allow yourself to use any substance , even once!!!! Do not think of it as fun…. It isn t.
Did they seek help? No income? Sewer problem, lack of money? Well…. We still here, dont know much….
We are not told if these people had a job! Fired? Record! This is told, like a bad gossip…..
I am soooo sorry for the baby… She is in better place, now away from her parents hell…..
When something like this comes along ane thee is no way it could have been anyone else ,that is guilty there should be no trial just put the guilty people in a box and bury them alive in and area infested with fire ants !!
The information in this one complete story sound terrible. I would like to know more about the details and why someone wouldn’t leave their kid in a car seat unless maybe it was warmer in that room. Sounds like they just didn’t want to deal with the child. This particular news story is lacking a lot of details so without more details it’s hard to understand what exactly happened
Can I have them for 48 hours. I’ll make them beg to die
Is this America |? With Welfare Running Rampant In this “O So D-Rich Country ” Where WERE the Agencies That Coulda-Shoulda Been Looking After The WELFARE of This Little Girl ?? Where Was Even A Neighbor,,” One who Didn`t want TO Get involved..Hiding OUT ? ) If People ARE So Ignorant And Too Stupid to Live.. Why Hasn`t Anyone Noticed LONG Before The Horrendous Death of This Little Innocent ? To ME>Brothers` keeper .///Like it or NOT. How many Times do we Hear of Some ..O SO Caring And Agast Neighbors Words “” I Knew Something Wasn`t right,,BUT ..I..Had NO idea >THAT was Going on over THERE ? ”DUH … AT That Point..Just Keep your Empty Sentiment To your Self !
LoulouTo K19marm & Confundmence, and all others who are outraged. Ck all States abuses of mentally ill and m/retarded.Your governors(50) have turned their backs on these helpless people and allowed the most heart wrenching atrocities to helpless people. Ignoring Supreme Court ruling that relatives decide where their helpless children live, and close all centers where most have spent most of their lives. ; Rape, beatings, withholding food and water, left in bathtubs with scalding water running and never taken for medical treatment. Remember, these are human beings, loved(so loved) by parents and relatives, cannot speak, many in wheelchairs, some blind, totally dependent on someone to meet their need. The Justice Department (?), dictates the rules and, for the love of money (the only reason we can find) Governors refuse to even look at the Centers or see the children. Regardless of the age, retarded are still children with I.Q.s of less than 5 years of age. Ck the abuses by States and read the horrors, and NO ONE gets punished. No oversite to see that the community homes these children
are forced into are inspected and workers are ex-prisoners, hatefilled people. Ch the horrors in Pa. Fla, La, NJ. etc. Then please! please ! help the abused by telling everyone about the horrors to innocent people. REMEMBER–BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD GO I. THANK YOU