Infant Starves To Death After Parents Replace Formula With Water And Cereal, Prosecutors Say

The Chicago parents of an infant who starved to death were arrested on Friday, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Prosecutors say Gene M. Edwards, 22, and 19-year-old Markesha M. Jones stopped feeding their infant daughter baby formula and instead fed her water mixed with cereal. This went on for two months, resulting in 7-month-old Mya Edwards dying of starvation at her father's Barrington home. Both parents have since been charged with involuntary manslaughter and felony child endangerment.

Paramedics arrived at Edwards' home on Jan. 8 to find the baby not breathing. Edwards had called the paramedics to his home but it was too late and Mya was pronounced dead on the dining room table, the Chicago Tribune reported.

At the time of her death Mya was extremely skinny, and so was her twin sister, who is still alive after receiving hospital treatment. The Cook County medical examiner's office ruled Mya's death a homicide due to malnutrition from starvation after months of investigating.

Mya was fed water, cereal and little baby food mixed into a bottle. Edwards said he noticed that Mya was losing weight but did nothing about it, Assistant State Attorney Alyssa Grissom told the newspaper. The parents were enrolled in the Women, Infants and Children program where they received supplemental nutrition benefits. Yet the couple allowed the benefits to slide.

The couple kept their twins in "an unfinished basement which resembled a dungeon" in a house on South Hager Avenue, Grissom said. The infants spent most of their time confined to the same crib.

Grissom also said the only heat in the basement came from a space heater, and that the parents turned down an offer to use a bedroom upstairs.

Mya's twin sister is currently in a foster home, the newspaper reported.

Edwards and Jones are being held on $250,000 bail.