A 12-year-old cheerleader from in Texas died on Monday night after her parents treated her life-threatening injuries with smoothies, police say.
Authorities received a call requesting medical assistance from Miranda Sipps' mother on August 12, shortly after 8:00 p.m.
Dispatchers instructed her to stop her vehicle along Highway 16 South and FM 140, where emergency medical responders met her.
The Jourdanton Jr. high School student was alive but unconscious when she was immediately transported to Methodist Hospital, Atascosa County Sheriff David Soward said.
Sheriff's deputies and investigators started investigating the circumstances surrounding her injuries.
The 12-year-old died in the hospital emergency room at 9:55 p.m.
Sergeant investigator Robert Newman led the investigation alongside a team of CID investigators.
Authorities were able to determine the child suffered serious life-threatening injuries last Thursday evening. The parents never took her for medical treatment and tried to treat her themselves.
During a news conference, Sheriff David Soward said Miranda "was primarily unconscious, unresponsive, incompasitative" and they simply tried to treat her with a smoothie with some vitamins.
The mother put her daughter in the car and allegedly called 911 when she went into respiratory distress. The sheriff thinks she did that because she did not want police to go to the home.
Denise Balbaneda, 36, and Gerald Gonzales, 40, were arrested at their home in Christine on Tuesday afternoon. The pair were booked into the Atascosa County Jail.
They are each charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury by omission, a first-degree felony. They were jailed on $200,000 bail.
A GoFundMe was organized in honor of Miranda.
"She was taken from us far too soon in an unexpected way," Pricilla Chapa said. "Leaving behind a legacy of love, laughter, and memories that we will cherish forever."
