When Their Daughter Can't Move On Her Own, Parents Think About Taking Her To The Hospital. After She Dies, Doctors Discover Why They Decided Not To
By Mike-Ross
An Oregon couple who allegedly starved their daughter until she finally died reportedly debated seeking medical treatment for her before she passed away.
According to PEOPLE, 34-year-old Estevan Garcia and 31-year-old Sacora Horn-Garcia have been charged with murder by abuse, first-degree manslaughter, and first-degree criminal mistreatment in the December death of their 5-year-old daughter.
When Maliyah Hope Garcia died on December 21, authorities say her parents exchanged a series of text messages in which they clearly contemplated getting her medical treatment.
According to court papers obtained by the Oregonian, Garcia told his wife to take Maliyah to the urgent care clinic after she “spit up a little bit” and couldn’t seem to sit up on her own.
“[It’s] less professional,” Garcia allegedly texted Horn-Garcia about the urgent care clinic, adding that he believed urgent care doctors were more “laid back.”
Photo Copyright © 2017 Deschutes County Jail via PEOPLE
In fact, Garcia even suggested that Horn-Garcia bring their other children to the clinic with her to the clinic to show that they were healthy.
“You need to come home and we need to take her in,” Horn-Garcia texted her husband at 10:47 a.m.
Sadly, by that time, it was too late for Maliyah, who had already been starved to death.
Just a few minutes later, Maliyah, who had reportedly been adopted by the couple from Garcia’s sister when she was 3 months old, collapsed on the floor and stopped breathing.
According to CBS News, although 911 was finally called, Maliyah was pronounced dead by the time she arrived at the hospital.
Authorities say that at the time of her death, Maliyah weighed just 24 pounds.
According to the Bend Bulletin, an autopsy performed the next day concluded that Maliyah died of emaciation.
When Garcia was questioned by authorities, he reportedly told police that Maliyah was perfectly healthy until she started showing “classic symptoms of the flu.”
Garcia said that the little girl began vomiting, had a fever, and could not eat four days before she died.
In court documents, however, witnesses revealed that the family abused Maliyah in unimaginable ways, forcing her to take cold showers, feeding her nothing but crackers and apples for dinner, and instructing her not to talk to the other children.
At one point, according to the Oregonian, Maliyah became so hungry that her parents put an alarm on her bedroom door to catch her each time she left her room in the middle of the night to sneak food from the kitchen.
“Suffice it to say, [Maliyah] went through hell,” Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel told the Oregonian.
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