A TEEN couple have been arrested after their 15-day-old baby was found with up to 100 rat bites and wound which left her skull visible.
Erica Shyrock, 19, and her 18-year-old boyfriend, Charles Elliott, were both charged after their newborn daughter – who weighed just 5lbs – was discovered covered in blood.
Police in Arkansas were called after the baby was taken to hospital with rodent bites all over her arms, fingers, hands and face including an inch long cut on her forehead.
A doctor’s report is said to have determined the wounds would have taken hours to occur and the baby would have been in distress during those hours.
The medic suggested both Shyrock and Elliott were “either incapacitated or absent to not have responded to the baby’s distress”.
ArkansasMatters.com reports both Erica and Charles admitted they knew there were rats in the house but neither did anything about it.
It is understood the teenagers – dating since 2015 – did not take the baby to the hospital for fear of the child being taken away from them.
The baby’s gran, and Elliot’s mum, said she needed to be seen by medics and Charles and Erica were arrested and charged with Endangering the Welfare of a Minor in the First Degree.
When police searched the home they found bloody rat footprints, a baby’s hat soaked in blood, a baby blanket with blood on it and rodent droppings on the bedside table.
The child is said to have had facial reconstruction surgery on Monday.