A 12-year-old cheerleader from Texas died Monday, four days after suffering mysterious, “life-threatening” injuries that her parents tried to treat with smoothies and vitamins, authorities said Wednesday.
Miranda Shipps, a student at Jourdanton Middle School, died in hospital on Monday night after her mother finally called for help after she began having difficulty breathing. This was announced by the Atascosa County Sheriff’s Office.
The girl’s mother, Denise Balvaneda, and her stepfather, Gerardo Gonzalez, 40, were arrested for failing to seek early medical help for the girl during the four days she was “mentally and physically incapacitated and unresponsive,” according to the sheriff’s office.
Sheriff David Soward reportedly said at a press conference that the couple didn’t raise the alarm sooner because they didn’t want to draw attention to the girl’s condition, but he did not provide details about Shipps’ injuries or how they caused them.
Authorities encountered Shipps’ mother in the street on her way to the hospital on Monday night, and emergency responders rushed him to Methodist Hospital, where medical staff “struggled to treat” Shipps but were unable to save his life, the sheriff’s office said.
The sheriff’s office launched an investigation, and detectives determined Thursday evening that the minor suffered “serious, life-threatening injuries.”
However, the sheriff’s office said the parents did not immediately call 911 “even though their daughter was mentally and physically incapacitated and unresponsive.”
Police officials said Balvaneda first called for help after the child began having difficulty breathing.
Soward said her mother and stepfather had been giving her smoothies and vitamins before she died, even though she was unresponsive. According to My San Antonio. He also said the pair may have tried to give the girl oxygen at one point.
“I think they basically thought they could nurse her back to health and didn’t want to draw attention to a girl being injured,” he said. “It’s a strange irony, but that was their mindset.”
The police chief added that the girl “was only able to flap her eyes and move her hands slightly for four days.”
He also claimed that the call for help had come from the home, but the mother had left with the children before police arrived because she did not want police to enter the house.
Sowards did not disclose the extent of Shipps’ injuries but noted he did not suffer any broken bones.
Balvaneda and Gonzalez were arrested Tuesday and charged with negligent serious injury to a child, a first-degree felony.
The investigation remains ongoing as authorities await a final autopsy report.
