KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A woman in Missouri baked her one-month-old child to death in an oven. The mother told law enforcement authorities that she mistook the cooking area for a crib, according to reports.
Mariah Thomas was identified as the criminal defendant. The crime scene at the residence near E. 41st Street and Forest Avenue in Kansas City was described as “gruesome,” after Thomas’s infant was discovered horribly burned and not breathing Friday, reported The Guardian.
According to prosecutors, police were told the mom “was putting her child down for a nap, and accidentally placed the child in the oven instead of the crib.” Fox 4 reported.
Thomas was charged with first-degree child endangerment resulting in the death of a child.
“We appreciate all first responders who worked this scene and the prosecutors who went to the scene in order to issue these charges,” Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said.
“We acknowledge the gruesome nature of this tragedy and our hearts are weighted by the loss of this precious life. We trust the criminal justice system to respond appropriately to these awful circumstances,” she noted.
