Parents accused of child abuse after ‘emaciated’ infant found dead in Independence
Parents of a two-month-old girl are charged with felony child abuse after authorities say their baby was found dead of severe malnutrition and dehydration on Monday afternoon inside their Independence apartment.
Austen M. Taube Hack, 19, and Sarah M. Stone, 20, are each charged with a single count of abuse and neglect of a child resulting in death. Both were in the custody of Independence police as of Wednesday afternoon with warrants to be transferred to the Jackson County jail.
Police officers were dispatched around 1:15 p.m. Monday to an apartment in the 4000 block of South Cedar Crest Drive for a medical call, according to court documents filed in Jackson County Circuit Court.
The 911 caller told dispatchers the victim, identified as D.S. in court documents, was “unresponsive, not breathing, and cold to the touch.” The infant was pronounced dead by a paramedic roughly 30 minutes after they arrived on scene.
Detectives were called to investigate and interviewed Stone and Taube Hack. They told police Stone had delivered the child inside their apartment on Aug. 28 without any medical supervision. They also said the baby had never received any immunizations or seen a doctor, and that the infant weighed 7 pounds, 8 ounces when she was born, a detective wrote in charging papers for the parents.
The baby was last known to be alive late Monday morning. Stone said she found her limp inside the bedroom and the couple attempted to perform CPR after conducting a Google search on how to do so, according to court documents.
Detectives noted the baby was found on the floor inside a bedroom and “appeared extremely malnourished and emaciated.”
“She appeared to be wearing a cloth diaper and a white onesie. The Victim’s ribs and collarbone were protruding through her skin,” the charging documents say.
During a subsequent search warrant executed at the residence, detectives reported finding concentrated THC, the chemical found in marijuana, and an apparent “grow operation of illegal hallucinogenic narcotic mushrooms.”
On Tuesday, the Jackson County Medical Examiner’s Office found that the baby had suffered “severe dehydration and malnutrition.” She weighed 5 pounds, 9 ounces, according to court documents.
Both parents were interviewed by detectives following the examination by the medical examiner and shown photographs of their daughter. Neither told police they thought she was sick or unhealthy at any point before her death, according to court documents.
During a police interview, Taube Hack allegedly told detectives they did not allow anyone to visit the child at their home and never brought her out of the apartment because “the world is a scary place.”
Court records did not list an attorney for Stone or Taube Hack as of Wednesday.
Under Missouri law, criminal defendants convicted of felony child abuse resulting in a death face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. Prosecutors on Wednesday requested that Stone and Taube Hack each be held on a $150,000 cash bond.
This story was originally published November 16, 2022 at 5:53 PM.
