Pensacola Mom Arrested For Child Neglect After Boyfriend Beats 2-Year-Old Toddler To Death
Police officers from the Pensacola Police Department have arrested a 25-year-old woman on charges of child neglect and related charges nearly a month after her 2-year-old son was allegedly beaten to death by her boyfriend.
The woman, identified as Mary Riddle was arrested at around 3:45 p.m., local time on Friday and was subsequently charged with two counts of child neglect with great bodily harm as confirmed in a report by the Pensacola Police Department.
Last month, on August 8, her boyfriend, 26-year-old Alonzo Thompkins was arrested in connection with the murder of two-year-old Cornelius Savage who was found dead by Mary inside her home.
According to reports, the child was under the care of Thompkins when Riddle had ventured out. Upon her return, she found the child not breathing and unresponsive. Following this, she called the police and emergency services who took the baby to a local hospital where the child was declared dead on arrival.
Following the incident, the Pensacola Police Department launched an investigation into the incident. The investigation confirmed that the little boy had suffered life threatening injuries that included fist-shaped bruises on his back, bleeding on the brain, bruising around his ears and a reddened area on his forehead. An autopsy report from the Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that the boy died of “blunt force trauma to the torso.”
In a separate confession, Thompkins went on to add that he had tortured the little boy on other occasions too. In a separate incident, he pulled the little boy out of bed, causing the child to lose his balance and hit his head on a dresser. Officers confirmed that the boy had an older bruise mark on his forehead which Thompson confessed to have inflicted on the child in the aforementioned incident.
Pensacola man arrested in toddler’s death – Pensacola News Journal https://t.co/wn3OdyrYTn
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What makes the incident even more tragic is the fact that authorities were aware of the fact that all was not well at the home where the toddler lived along with three other children and their mother. Questions are being raised now as to why the boy was allowed to stay with Mary Riddle even after the child had once suffered a broken skull in an incident in 2015. The boy was only recently reunited with the family before his tragic death.
Following the death of little Cornelius, the Department of Children and Families opened a review of the case at the end of which the three remaining children were removed from the home. Upon investigation, the department found that all three of the other children living in the home were not being cared for properly. The children included a 5-year-old boy, a 3-year-old girl and a 10-month-old baby girl, all of whom were found in poor health. The investigation has also resulted in the aforementioned arrest of Mary Riddle after it was found that the 3-year-old girl living in the home had several loop-shaped bruises on her body and had broken a collarbone. When Thompkins was asked if he had hit any of the other children he confessed that he had once pulled the 3-year-old girl off the bed by her arm after he smelled poop from the girls room and attempted to change her diaper.
Meanwhile, in a confession to the police, Mary told them that the toddler was okay a day prior to his death and that there were no bruise marks on him. She said that she had placed the boy under Thompkins care and had gone out for an hour only to find the child unresponsive upon her return.
[Image Via Pensacola Police Department]
