A man and woman are now facing three counts of felony child neglect after a one-year-old died while in their care and two other young children showed signs of abuse, according to WLOX in Missouri.
WLOX reported: The one-year-old’s father, Thomas Cannette and his girlfriend Cassandra Lopresto, both 27-years-old, were arrested on Tuesday after investigators discovered the “deplorable conditions” the children were living in.
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On December 3rd, 2018, Harrison County deputies received a call about a child who was unresponsive from the couple’s home. The little boy was found behind a sofa in the couple’s home and immediately taken to a Biloxi hospital, where he was pronounced dead. During the investigation, authorities discovered the infant was left unsupervised for an extensive amount of time.
The sheriff’s deputies found the infant, as well as a two-year-old and three-year-old living in “deplorable conditions,” and said the toddlers both showed signs of abuse and neglect. Sheriff deputies immediately called the Department of Human Services, who took both of the other children into custody. The two-year-old and the deceased one-year-old both belonged to Canette, where the three-year-old little girl belonged to Lopresto.
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During the investigation, deputies also found drug paraphernalia in the couples home and arrested Cannette and Lopresto. The couple were booked into Harrison County Adult Detention Center while waiting for the results from the state medical examiner on the death of the one-year-old.
When the autopsy came in it showed obvious signs of abuse, authorities said. The child died as a result of asphyxiation after becoming trapped behind the sofa, according to the investigator’s report.
Both Cannette and Lopresto are being held on a $750,000 bond. Charges have not been upgraded at the time of this publication.
