Nathalyz Rivera, 3, Starved to Death by Parents; 3-Year-Old Weighed Only 11 Pounds
A 3-year-old girl weighing just 11 pounds was brought to a local hospital in Philadelphia, where she was pronounced dead. Her parents have since been charged with neglect and starving their daughter to death, while her siblings have been taken into protective custody.
Carlos Rivera, 30, found his daughter unconscious and not breathing; instead of taking her to the hospital or calling authorities, he rushed her to her mother, who was with her boyfriend at the time. Carmen Ramirez, 27, then took the girl to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
According to a child-abuse pediatrician at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Nathalyz Rivera was allegedly "starved like people in concentration camps starved. This doesn't happen to a child in a couple of weeks. Generally, it is a process that takes months and months, or even years of neglect," she told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Authorities then investigated the family's home and discovered an atrocious amount of garbage, fleas, and rodents. Official reports state that Nathalyz was covered in festering wounds like those from insects and rodents. Police were unable to move throughout the house and had to take photographs from a single location.
"This is one of the worst cases of abuse that I've seen in my five years on the homicide unit," Captain James Clark said during a press conference. Ramirez was arrested at the hospital and Rivera just hours later. They were charged with homicide by starvation.
The other children in the home, Nathalyz's twin brother and three other siblings, were removed from the home and placed in the custody of the Department of Human Services. They also had bites on their bodies and were relatively thin. DHS could not comment further on the children's conditions or where they had been placed but did note that they were working with police to care for the children and provide the best for them.
