A 21-year-old mother is in custody on charges of child abuse and first-degree murder, officials said.
Kelsy Newell-Skinner's 2-month-old daughter Natalee died Thursday night of suspected child abuse. She told the authorities that she was drunk the night the baby was beaten and woke up the next morning without remembering what happened, her arrest affidavit stated.
The statement read that the police were called to Children's Hospital in Aurora , Colorado for a child that was transferred there from Parker Adventist Hospital. The infant was declared brain dead and had multiple injuries including severe bruising on her head, a swollen left eye, fractured ribs and what doctors thought was a bite mark on her left thigh.
Newell-Skinner stayed with Natalee, her boyfriend and four other children, who are all below the age of 5, in the Pembrooke on the Green apartment complex on Dartmouth Avenue. The door to their one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment was padlocked, Friday, reports the Denver Post.
The affidavit states that in a text message sent to her boyfriend, Newell-Skinner wrote that she "must have been very drunk last night because I just woke up and the baby had been beaten." Her boyfriend said he went to the apartment on East Hampden Avenue and Newell-Skinner told him that the baby had been beaten, but she did not say by whom.
Later that day, Newell-Skinner's mother arrived at the apartment. The mother took the baby to Parker Adventist Hospital.
According to the baby's father, he last saw his daughter Saturday evening before he left for work. Investigators say that Newell-Skinner might have got into an argument with her boyfriend. Investigation in the matter is on.
