A 12-year-old child is dead, and her mother and stepfather are behind bars after they allegedly failed to seek medical attention for the preteen’s life-threatening injuries.
During a press conference, officials revealed Miranda Sipps had been “primarily unconscious” for several days before her parents called 911. By the time she was transported to a hospital, it was too late.
According to a statement from the Atascosa County Sheriff’s Office, police received a 911 call from a woman on August 12 around 8:00 p.m. First responders met the woman on a highway near Christine, Texas where they found Miranda “alive but unconscious.”
The 12-year-old was transported to a nearby hospital, and despite hospital personnel’s best efforts, she was pronounced dead less than two hours after she arrived.
An investigation into the child’s death was immediately opened.
Investigators discovered Miranda sustained “serious life threatening injuries” on the evening of August 8, and even though she was “mentally and physically incapacitated and non-responsive,” her parents 36-year-old Denise Balbaneda and stepfather, 40-year-old Gerald Gonzales failed to seek medical attention.
Instead, Balbaneda and Gonzales attempted to treat their daughter on their own by giving her a smoothie with vitamins.
“Of course, somebody that’s unconscious, that’s hard to do,” Sheriff David Soward said during a press conference.
“Basically they thought they could nurse her back to health, and we do not think they wanted the attention that this would draw if the little girl was injured, which is strangely ironic, but that was their line of thinking,” he said.
Balbaneda didn’t call 911 until her daughter went into respiratory distress.
Soward did not reveal how Miranda received her injuries, adding he was “not 100% sure.”
Both Balbaneda and Gonzales were arrested and face charges of charges of injury to a child causing serious bodily injury by omission.
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