A pair of Texans have been arrested after their toddler daughter was somehow severely burned by boiling water and they injected her with methamphetamine to ease the pain.
According to jail records, Amanda Mann, 31, and Dustin Lawrence, 30, have been charged with endangering a child, endangering a child risking bodily injury, injury to a child, and four counts of intentionally abandoning/endangering a child, KSAT reported.
Five other children were found in the couple’s “filthy” RV, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said.
The couple initially told deputies the little girl was burned in a hot shower, but Mann later said it was actually boiling water from the stove. It’s not clear if the girl pulled down the pot or one of the so-called adults poured the water on her, Salazar said.
Mann and Lawrence declined to go for medical treatment after the Friday night incident and instead treated her with a cheap burn ointment and meth.
Salazar explained that the little girl fell asleep, but on Saturday, when the parents removed the sheets covering her, the skin fell off. By Saturday night, they called a family friend for help, and that friend suggested they take the baby to the hospital.
The couple dropped the child off and then left.
Mann and Lawrence were taken into custody Sunday afternoon.
Deputies said they found 2-month-old twins — who were delivered in the squalid recreational vehicle where the family “lived” and had never received medical care — a 2-year-old, a 6-year-old, and an 8-year-old. The 8-year-old was left to care for the other children while the “parents” took the toddler to the hospital.
One of the other children also tested positive for meth, Salazar said.
“They had a living hell,” Salazar said of the children, calling the case “pretty infuriating” and saying the 1-year-old suffered “outright torture.”
“We have literally thrown every possible charge we could,” he said. “I hope to God they stay in jail for the better part of the rest of their lives based on what we’ve seen.”
All of the children are now in the care of Child Protective Services.
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[Featured image: Amanda Mann and Dustin Lawrence/Bexar County Jail]
