State Police: Mother Abuses Her Son Nearly To Death
WESTMORELAND COUNTY (KDKA) -- A local mother is accused of abusing her child so badly the toddler ended up with swelling of the brain, broken bones and bruises.
Doctors say they even found drugs in the child's system.
Police say the suspect in this case blamed her child's near fatal injuries on the family dog. Crystal Nicole Steel is in the Westmoreland County Jail tonight after what she allegedly did to her nearly 2-year-old child inside a Diary Borough residence.
"The child is lucky to be alive. This was a near fatality," State Trooper Steve Limani said.
When Steel brought the child to Latrobe Hospital, doctors there were shocked. They immediately sent the little boy to UPMC Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh where doctors there told investigators the child had swelling on the brain as well as broken bones and bruises.
Steel, 28, blamed the injuries on the dog. State Trooper Limani summarized the statement Steel gave to officials:
"He had fallen off on a ramp outside her apartment complex while playing with the dog and that the dog while this child would like to wrestle with dog must have caused these injuries."
The broken bones and bruises were not the only things that shocked doctors and investigators alike.
"The child was actually under the influence and had cocaine in its system," Limani said.
State police believe that was caused by Steel, who allegedly used crack cocaine in front of the child. Drugs, apparently, were readily available inside Steel's residence.
"Cocaine, heroin, and then there were a bunch of unidentified pills that were also at the house," Limani said.
Crystal Steel is in Westmoreland County Jail, held on a $270,000 bond. Her child is recovering, meanwhile, with his grandmother.
