Stepmom faces charges after 5-year-old child drowns in waste disposal ditch, cops say
Riley Scot Hogeback,5, was left to drown in a toxic waste pit adjacent to a pig pen in Florida, officials say
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A stepmom is facing charges for the death of a 5-year-old after he drowned in a waste disposal ditch in Florida.
Cheyenne Star Fite, 25, was taken into custody Tuesday and charged with one count of aggravated manslaughter by child abuse, according to a police affidavit and Law & Crime.
According to an arrest report, Fite had been looking after her stepson, 5-year-old Riley Scot Hogeback, on October 11, when he tumbled down a waste disposal ditch in Kissimmee and drowned after becoming intoxicated by fumes and animal excrement.
His body was gruesomely discovered by police “unresponsive, naked and covered in mud," according to Osceola County deputies, and court documents revealed that his “lungs were lined by brown and green mud.”
Another child reportedly told police that Fite had actually been asleep at the time of the boy’s death. They also added that Fite had been punishing Riley by leaving him “outside naked” because he had wounded a chicken that day, reported Law & Crime.
Emergency responders rushed the child to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Fite reportedly told police during an interview that she had allowed Riley, and his two siblings, aged three and five, to play in the yard because of a lack of power in the house.
However, the children had been “entertaining themselves” in mud pools – ankle-deep puddle remnants of Hurricane Helene, she told authorities.
As the children played, the 25-year-old claimed she turned for a brief moment to fold clothes but suddenly, she heard a scream.
“[Riley] is under the water”, the little girl screamed, said the report.
But an unphased Fite, who thought nothing of it continued with her chores, police said.
Fite told police her friend had visited the home that day to dig out a seven-foot deep hole next to the pigpen with what “appeared to be run-off water from the pig pen.”
Fite claimed she dove into the hole and pulled the young boy out – and informed police later on that Riley had been unable to swim and disclosed that her phone became submerged into the excrement pool as she tried to rescue him.
When police inspected the hole later on, they described smelling a pungent “odor emanating from the water consistent with fecal matter and urine.”
An obituary for Riley described him as “a sweet but mischievous boy, always ready with a laugh that could light up a room.”
Fite is reportedly being held in the Osceola County Jail without bond and is set to appear in court Thursday.