Malnourished 14-year-old weighed 33 pounds at his death, Florida cops say. Mom charged
A teenage boy who was found unconscious in his home and later died weighed just 33 pounds, Florida police told news outlets.
Now, his mother is charged with murder.
On Jan. 1, officers were called to a home where Talia Nelson, 43, said she had found her son Zayke Smith-Nelson, 14, unresponsive on the floor when she came into his room from cooking dinner, according to an arrest report from the Daytona Beach Police Department obtained by the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
McClatchy News reached out to the department for more information.
Zayke was taken to the hospital where he died, police said in the report.
The teenager had visible bed sores on his body and weighed just 33 pounds at his death, according to police documents obtained by WESH.
A medical examiner determined Zayke was malnourished and had lost a significant amount of his bone density, the outlet reported, and he had bruising on his face and scars on his stomach and legs.
The injuries were “obvious” signs of abuse, police told WFTV.
Nelson told officers her son had a bone disease, was lactose intolerant and would throw up any food that he was given, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported, but when police looked at medical records, they found Zayke had not seen a doctor since 2020.
Medical records from a doctor’s visit in October 2019 showed Zayke was healthy at the age of 10, and there were no concerns about his growth or development, police said in the report.
Nelson told police she hadn’t noticed his weight loss but that it must have been from his vomiting, WESH reported.
She said she “dropped the ball” in getting medical attention for her son, according to the outlet, but she told investigators that he didn’t want to see doctors and she had not been neglectful.
The medical examiner said Zayke likely could not have moved on his own for an extended period of time, making it impossible for the marks and injuries on his body to have been self-inflicted, police said in the report according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
His manner of death was ruled a homicide, news outlets reported.
On Feb. 9, Nelson was charged with first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter and aggravated child abuse, WFTV reported.
Daytona Beach is about 60 miles northeast of Orlando.
