CLEVELAND, Ala. (AP) — Alabama authorities say an 18-month-old baby at the center of a child abuse investigation has died.
News outlets report that the boy died Monday. Authorities said the charges will be upgraded against the child’s mother and boyfriend.
Samantha McCormack, 24, will be charged with reckless murder and her boyfriend, 28-year-old Robert Elmore Jr., will be charged with capital murder.
Authorities say the baby was hospitalized Friday and was a “victim of severe battering and shaking injury.”
Robert Elmore, Jr. (left) and Samantha McCormack (right). Photos: Blount County Jail.
Blount County Sheriff’s Investigator Edward Hull says Elmore admitted to dropping the baby because the baby pulled his chest hairs. Hull says McCormack didn’t call authorities right away because she believed she’d lose custody of her children again, as she did in 2018.
