Fayette County mom accused of abusing infant daughter
MENALLEN TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) — A Fayette County mother faces aggravated assault charges after state police said she abused her infant daughter.
The Menallen Township mom is accused of assaulting her newborn baby on July 8 at the Village of Searights apartment complex. State police said 21-year-old Aubree Hale beat her 2-month-old daughter so badly that doctors called the baby a victim of an "extraordinary amount of violence," which included bruising to the child's entire body.
"It breaks my heart," neighbor Erin Gibbs said. "It's a child. They didn't ask to be here in this world."
Hale told police that she fell asleep with her daughter on her chest and woke up to the baby crying on the floor. However, one of the victim's siblings told investigators that she saw her mom slap the baby in the face, throw her on the bed and grab her by the neck.
The criminal complaint contains a quote from a UPMC Children's Hospital physician that said, in part:
"There are too many bruises to count, as well as numerous superficial abrasions and lacerations over nearly every surface of this child's body.
"She was also found to have injury to the veins in her brain, consistent with trauma. She was hurt by an adult multiple times, over multiple planes of her body. It is difficult for me to conceive of how these injuries all could've happened at the same time."
There is an active warrant for Hale's arrest. State police said that she had not turned herself in as of Friday evening.