Mother Arrested In Connection To Death Of 3-Year-Old Son
NORTH MIAMI (CBSMiami) – North Miami Police have arrested a mother in the death of her three-year-old boy found inside the family home early Tuesday morning.
According to police, the 21-year-old Fafane Caze has been charged with aggravated child abuse and torture after she confessed to torturing her son. More serious charges are expected pending autopsy results.
Police say Caze had a cold and stoic demeanor throughout questioning but cracked after being in custody at the North Miami Police Department for more than 12 hours. During her confession, investigators say the mother showed no remorse and seemed more concerned about her arrest and not being able to see her other two children.
According to North Miami Police Major Neal Cuevas, police got a call at 3:30 a.m. regarding a child who was not breathing at 12501 NE 13th Avenue.
Ghanson Debrosse was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital North where he was pronounced dead. Doctors believe the boy had been dead for at least three hours.
"We determined from our investigation that the boy has suffered some severe trauma and, according to the investigators, the child had trauma over every inch of his body," said Cuevas.
Detectives said the boy had been abused for some time and showed signs of sexual abuse.
"Just listening to the investigators and listening to the mother's explanation almost brought me to tears, just to hear some of the things that this child has suffered," said Cuevas. "From what we can tell, the child had some old and fresh injuries. So it appears that this abuse has been going on for some time."
"The child also showed some signs of burns in the past," said Cuevas.
The mother's neighbors said they were deeply upset.
"This was going on around here, all these homes lack a dad, the mothers don't know what to do. They got a lot of problems," said Hans Louis. "This kind of stuff is sad," he said. "It's going on too much. And if you don't know what's happening with families, sometimes when you get there it's too late. Someone is hurt or dead."
Another neighbor who did not want to show all of her face or give her name told D'Oench that while she did not know the mother of the child, she said "It's terrible. I have kids of my own. I love kids. I'm a Mom. This is terrible."
The Department of Children and Families was called. The woman's two other children, a one-year-old boy who had been living with someone else, and a four-year-old girl, who also has signs of abuse according to Cuevas, were taken into DCF custody.
CBS4 also obtained a report from DCF that showed the mother had a history with the agency. DCF said Caze had been arrested in November of 2010 for domestic battery against Ghanson Debosse's father. Caze reportedly threatened to throw the child at the father.
The DCF report also said the father bit the mother's finger and tried to choke her and threatened to take his son back to Haiti with him.
The family received intensive in-home services but a child protective investigator "did not observe any signs indicative of abuse," according to the report.
DCF interim secretary Esther Jacobo released a statement that reads in part:
"My heart is breaking for this child. As we continue to investigate and work with law enforcement, it is evident that Ghanson had a very tragic and tortured life which ended far too soon. Although we had contact with Ghanson and his family when he was an infant, we received no reports since thaoime and no one could have predicted this heartbreaking tragedy."