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LAKELAND, Fla. - Police in Lakeland, Fla. have arrested an Indiana couple on first-degree murder charges in connection with an infant's death.

Investigators say the couple let their 22-day-old baby starve to death.

The 22-day-old baby, Betsey Kee Stephens, was found dead on Dec. 23.

The child's mother, 23-year-old Ruby, and 48-year-old Roy Stephens told police they had just arrived from Tennyson, Ind., and found the baby unresponsive when they checked on her as they stopped at a restaurant to eat. CBS affiliate WTSP reports investigators determined the infant had been dead for about three-and-a-half hours before the couple called 911.

Police say the baby's siblings, a 1-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl, both appeared to be in good health. The children are now in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families.

The parents were in Lakeland to visit family.

Roy Stephens is not the infant's biological father.

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starvation:

Here in the USA.

There is NO EXCUSE here.

NONE.

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The investigation has since revealed that Betsey had been dead for more than three hours before anyone called emergency officials.

Police Tuesday said pictures from the scene are unsettling.

“When I saw the photographs…it shook me to my core because in thirty years, I have never seen anything like that,” said Assistant Police Chief Mike Link.

According to the medical examiner, Betsey weighed little more than four pounds, about half of what she should have weighed.

Both Ruby and Roy, who police said is not the biological father, claim to have fed the baby several times over the trip down from Indiana. The medical examiner, however, says that is not possible. There was very little food found in her body.

“It's very apparent -- it would be very apparent to anyone who saw the photographs -- that this did not occur overnight or in days," said Asst. Chief Link. "In my opinion this child suffered from day one of birth, to the time that she passed away.”

The baby's death has been ruled a homicide, and both have been charged with first-degree murder.

Betsey had two siblings, a 1-year-old brother and a 2-year-old sister, in the car at the time of the incident. The Lakeland Police Department says they are now with the Department of Children and Families.

"They failed miserably to take care of this child. She suffered tremendously over the 22 days she was alive to meet this kind of demise," Link said.

[pyromancer555]

Hope they keep them in FLDOC.

[corpsehands]

"They failed miserably"
Fuckin right they did.

[jesse]

My heart broke. I have cried. I have screamed. That poor child suffered horribly.

These monsters need to die. Heaven help me because this makes me crazy. I want them dead. By starvation. And I want to watch it happen. And I know these feelings are terrible. I just cannot control it. Maybe it is because I don't want to.

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Originally Posted by Matti ↗

My heart broke. I have cried. I have screamed. That poor child suffered horribly.

These monsters need to die. Heaven help me because this makes me crazy. I want them dead. By starvation. And I want to watch it happen. And I know these feelings are terrible. I just cannot control it. Maybe it is because I don't want to.

I do not want to have any sympathy empathy or anything related to human feelings when it comes to these people and their ilk, Matti!!! I just cant feel anything but the urge to slice them up and have them feel the pangs and pains that baby felt. Starvation is NOT painless, and that baby suffered and didnt know why....didnt know anything else but suffering....at their hands.

some people should die.

Some people should die SLOW DEATHS.

[pyromancer555]

Wouldnt mind him coming to the institution that I work at.

[Shakey]

This is old news.

[jesse]

Originally Posted by Shakey ↗

This is old news.

It is not that old. What a week at most? Stop being a shit.