A 12-year-old girl died in US' Texas after she mysteriously suffered from "life-threatening" injuries which her parents tried to treat with smoothies and vitamins, officials said.
Miranda Sipps died at a hospital on Monday after her parents called emergency services for help when she was unable to breathe, four days after she sustained said injuries. In a bizarre twist, after they made the call, her mother left the house with the girl in a car as she didn't want policemen inside the house.
While fleeing the scene, their car was stopped by police near a highway and Miranda was found unconscious but alive inside the vehicle. She was rushed to the hospital but declared dead soon after.
Investigation revealed that the mother, Denise Balbaneda (36) and stepfather Gerald Gonzalez (40), did not seek medical help for the girl during the four days while she was "mentally and physically incapacitated and non-responsive".
For four days, the couple kept their daughter at home and allegedly fed her smoothies and vitamins even though she wasn't responsive. They might have tried to giver her oxygen in an attempt to revive her, officials alleged.
"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," Atascosa County Sheriff David Soward told local media.
The parents told authorities that over the four days their daughter could only "flutter her eyes and move her hands a little bit".
While it is not known how she sustained the severe injuries, an autopsy is being conducted to find out the nature of her injuries.
Her mother and stepfather have been arrested and charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury.
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