The parents of a 12-year-old Texas girl were arrested Tuesday after they allegedly failed to seek immediate medical attention for her life-threatening injuries and instead tried to treat her by giving her a smoothie.
The dead 12-year-old girl has been identified as Miranda Shipps, a student at Jourdanton Middle School in Christine, a small town south of San Antonio, Atascosa County Sheriff David Soward said at a news conference Wednesday.
Authorities said Shipps, who died Monday, had been seriously injured since last Thursday, but his parents withheld details about his injuries and did not seek medical attention. Shipps’ mother, Denise Balvaneda, 36, and her stepfather, Gerardo Gonzalez, 40, are charged with negligent injury to a child, a first-degree felony.
Detectives began investigating the incident after the Atacosa County Sheriff’s Office received a call reporting Shipps had stopped breathing. He was alive when paramedics arrived and took him to the hospital, but died a short time later.
Officers investigating the incident learned Shipps had been fatally injured on Thursday and alleged that her parents had not sought medical help for days, even though their daughter was “mentally and physically incapacitated and unresponsive,” Soward said.
“She wasn’t talking, but she was basically flapping her eyes and moving her hands a little bit,” he added.
It’s unclear how Shipps sustained his injuries, but Thorward said they “have nothing to do with the school.”
“We have heard from the mother but we’re not ready to make any public announcements at this time,” the sheriff said.
Sowards also told reporters that Balvaneda had tried to treat his daughter, who was “virtually unconscious,” with treatments including vitamin smoothies and, at one point, oxygen therapy.
“Basically, they thought they could nurse her back to health,” he said. “I don’t think they wanted to draw attention to a girl being injured. It’s a strange irony, but that was their mindset.”
The investigation is ongoing and authorities are awaiting a final autopsy report. It is unclear whether the parents have an attorney.
Following Shipps’ death, a GoFundMe was set up to help with funeral expenses. Organizer Priscilla Chapa wrote in the GoFundMe that Shipps was their niece, and that “she was taken from us far too soon and unexpectedly, leaving behind love, laughter and memories that we will cherish forever.”
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