A desperate toddler is believed to have hanged herself from her baby car seat as her stoned mother was slumped in the front for four hours. The traumatized two-year-old is thought to have been frantically trying to free herself from the seat’s straps.
The traumatized two-year-old is thought to have been frantically trying to free herself from the seat’s straps when she died. While authorities have not yet released the cause of death, one officer said asphyxiation has not yet been ruled out, along with heat exhaustion. Mother Deanna Joseph, 39, dialed 911 in the evening from her home in New Jersey, America, to report her child was unresponsive, State Police have said. Salem County Prosecutor John T. Lenahan said: “It appeared the child was confined in a car seat for an extended period of time while the mother was under the influence of drugs, and may have injured herself in the car seat.” S
Lenahan said the child had no obvious signs of blunt force trauma and the exact cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner’s office. Joseph, who was in the vehicle with her daughter, had left the car parked but running in her driveway, he said. It was a cool night, he said, but Joseph had the heater on. It is the mum’s third arrest in nine years on charges related to neglect of a child, according to court records, the paper said.
In the most recent case from 2014, Joseph was convicted of cruelty and neglect of a child after authorities reportedly found her unconscious while her son, then an infant, bathed in several inches of water in a South Am-boy apartment. She was sentenced to a year in jail and was released a year ago this month, records show.
Police also told mycentraijersey.com that again in 2014, Joseph was found unresponsive next to spoons and glassing envelopes containing heroin residue, along with a couple of rocks of crack cocaine. Joseph was also convicted of cruelty and neglect of a child in 2008 in Superior Court in Burlington County and sentenced to five years probation, the paper discovered.
The Burlington County Times said at the time that Eve-sham police arrested her after determining that she left her children, aged 11 and two, were alone at home. Police made the discovery after they found Joseph under the influence of drugs in a car park and took her to a hospital. After the 2008 arrest, the two children were taken into state custody at least temporarily, according to the Burlington county times. Mirror
