Police arrested a man early today (April 21) in connection with the death of a 17-month old baby Sunday in Festus, and injuries to a 3-year-old boy.
Authorities said the man is the boyfriend of Taylor Lynn Fast, 21, mother of both children.
Festus Police Chief Tim Lewis on Tuesday said his department was in the process of questioning the suspect, a 24-year-old man from “the De Soto-Hillsboro area.”
“It was good footwork, good police work,” Lewis said of the arrest. “We learned he was in the Olympian Village area and arrested him about 3 a.m. at a residence.”
Lewis said the suspect was taken into custody peacefully.
He said his department would consult with the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office on potential charges against the man. Fast was charged Monday in connection with her son’s broken leg, but not in her daughter’s death.
Lewis said an investigation continues.
Emergency personnel declared the 17-month-old baby girl dead Sunday morning when they responded to an 8:20 a.m. call about an unresponsive child at a Festus apartment complex in the 200 block of Timberwyck.
The mother told officers her daughter had been bitten by a spider and was unconscious, the chief said.
“I’ve been a policeman for a long time and I have never seen a case of child abuse this severe,” Lewis said. “Anyone even without medical training could have walked in there and seen it was child abuse.”
He said officers found the child “had severe injuries to her face and neck and bruising over most of her body.”
Joachim-Plattin Ambulance District personnel arrived and told officers the child had been dead for several hours. The mother told authorities she did not know what had happened to her daughter throughout the night, Lewis reported.
A probable-cause statement said the 3-year-old boy was examined by doctors at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, who determined he had “an oblique spiral fracture to his left leg.”
Lewis said the boy was treated and turned over to the state Children’s Division.
The Prosecuting Attorney’s Office filed a class A misdemeanor charge of second-degree child endangerment against Fast in connection with her son’s broken leg.
Lewis on Tuesday said Fast remained in custody at the Festus Police Department Jail on the child endangerment charge. She was being held on a $10,000 cash-only bond.
“We have filed this charge based on what we know,” Prosecuting Attorney Forrest Wegge said. “The investigation is continuing.”
According to the probable-cause statement, Fast told police her son had been limping for two to three days and told her that her boyfriend had hurt him. She acknowledged that she did not seek medical attention for her son or report the possible child abuse, the statement said.