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Female Soldier Allegedly Beat Toddler To Death With Help From Her Boyfriend

By Chelsea Hoffman
Published on: 01:26 PST, Mar 30, 2016

A female soldier in the U.S. Army has been arrested on accusations that she and her boyfriend violently beat her 2-year-old daughter to death. Penn Live reports that 23-year-old Jeanie Ditty has been charged with crimes associated with the tot’s death. The details of this case are tragic, indicating that the alleged victim’s short time on this earth was filled with pain and suffering.

Authorities in North Carolina allege that Ditty and her boyfriend, 32-year-old Zachary Keefer, beat her 2-year-old daughter to death in an incident that they are calling a case of brutal child abuse. The Pocono Record reports that these charges come a handful of months following the death of 2-year-old Macy Grace Ditty.

The incident took place at the beginning of last December. Two-year-old Macy Grace Ditty was taken to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center with what was described as “life-threatening injuries.” Hospital staff were immediately alarmed by the child’s condition, so they notified police. The child was then transported to another hospital, where it was determined that she had suffered numerous severe injuries within approximately 24 hours. Just two days later, on December 4, Macy Grace Ditty died from her injuries. Her death was eventually ruled as a homicide, leading to the arrests of the two persons believed responsible for her demise.

Jeanie Ditty is reportedly a female soldier in the U.S. Army. She enlisted in the military not long after graduating high school and had been stationed at Fort Bragg, which is where she was stationed at the time of the incident that claimed her daughter’s life. Police believe that she violently beat her daughter in the hours leading up to her hospitalization in December.

This isn’t the first time a parent has been accused of beating his or her child to death. There’s a reason why it seems that child abuse stories make headlines every single week. That’s because the statistics indicate that hundreds of thousands of children are victims of abuse every year. In 2013, according to the National Children’s Alliance, more than 1,500 children died from abuse and neglect. Startlingly, the vast majority of fatal child abuse incidents are perpetrated by parents or guardians.

Around the same time that Macy Grace Ditty was allegedly beaten to death, another young mom was arrested for a similarly brutal crime against her own child. Jazmine Jones stands accused of brutally punching her toddler as many as five times in the stomach and back, which left the girl so injured that she later died from her injuries. The shocking reason for this alleged beating rocked media headlines and angered people on social media. The 18-year-old Chicago mom allegedly beat the child to death because she was being fussy during dinnertime and wouldn’t eat the noodles she’d been given.

What makes this most recent case of child abuse particularly disturbing is the fact that the mother accused of the crime is a U.S. soldier. People on social media are absolutely outraged that someone trained to protect Americans can be accused of such a senselessly violent act against a defenseless child.

Both Ditty and her boyfriend have been charged with first-degree murder and negligent child abuse. The loved ones of the young female soldier are “shocked” by the charges against her, but none of them have spoken to the media regarding whether or not they believe she actually participated in the beating death of the 2-year-old toddler.

[Image via Fayetteville Police Mugshot]

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