Three-month-old baby girl Shanelle was left on a couch on the first floor of her house while her mother, Yvonne Adkins, had a drunken sex romp on the second floor for nine hours said The Mirror.
When Yvonne came back down to check on her baby nine hours later, she reportedly found the infant no longer breathing.
According to reports, Yvonne had left the baby with the child’s older sister.
Shanelle was found dead on the couch without any winter clothes on or even a blanket. All the child was wearing was a onesie.
The child was rushed to the hospital and attempts to revive the infant were made, but to no avail.
What happened?
Conflicting stories initially came out when police questioned Yvonne and the other children present in the house. Yvonne has five other children.
Yvonne allegedly said that she had fed the baby at 5:00 am when her current beau (a man she met only a week ago at a bus stop) had left for work. She had then gone back to sleep. She said that the baby was sleeping in a basket at the foot of the bed.
But paramedics reportedly said that the child did not look like she was prepared for sleep or fed, which lead Yvonne to retract her first story.
Find out what Yvonne said when they found out she was lying on the next page
What Yvonne said when paramedics said the baby did not look fed or put to bed properly
Yvonne said that she had not put the baby to sleep nor had she fed her. She said that she had been drinking and having sex with her new lover while she left the baby downstairs on the couch.
When police questioned her nine-year-old son, he told a different story. According to the boy, Yvonne had reportedly left the child to his aunt with learning difficulties, who took the baby out “because she was crying.”
Even when Yvonne’s lover left at 5:00 that morning, the mother supposedly did not go down to check on the child. He said he saw that the aunt was co-sleeping on the couch and that a blanket had obscured the child’s face.
According to the paramedics, Yvonne allegedly exhibited disturbing behaviour on the way to the hospital. She initially did not want to go with the baby and was one the phone for almost the whole journey, while they tried to revive Shanelle.
Shameless? Neglectful? or Both?
Reports also say that Yvonne had been visited by social services weeks earlier, when an anonymous source tipped the government about how the mother neglected her children. Yvonne has six children from four different fathers.
The tip-off was made after people expressed concern as to how the children were left in the care of Yvonne’s sister, who has learning difficulties. Yvonne also allegedly let people come and go into the home and blasted loud music at all hours.
Initially cooperative, Yvonne shocked social services when they found out what happened.
Perhaps the tip-off had come too late, and the baby could have been rescued sooner.
Read: Double tragedy hits 2 Australian daycares: 5-month-old baby dies, 2-year-old boy drowns
Would you have reported the incident earlier, mommies? If you lived near a woman like Yvonne, what would you have done?