When Herbert Landell and Lauren Fristed took their 10-week-old daughter to the hospital, authorities said little Nevaeh Landell was already “stiff.”
Landell, 26, and Fristed, 25, were arrested Wednesday and charged with two counts of felony murder, two counts of cruelty to children and a single count of aggravated battery. Duluth police have accused them of causing their child's death by diluting her milk with water, which allegedly "caused water intoxication that led to swelling in the victim's brain."
An incident report obtained Thursday said Landell and Fristed, who are married, took Nevaeh to Gwinnett Medical Center-Duluth on the afternoon of March 25. An emergency room nurse told police that Landell handed her a towel he had been carrying under his arm and said that “his child was not breathing.”
Nevaeh was wrapped in the towel.
“(The nurse) said that medical procedures were conducted, however the juvenile was deceased upon arrival at the hospital,” police said in the report. “(The nurse) said that the juvenile was ‘stiff’ and had a body temperature well below the normal range.”
In arrest warrants for the couple, authorities contended that the Landell and Fristed failed “to provide the victim with any medical treatment after birth” and that they fed their daughter breast milk that was “largely diluted with water.” Watering down milk or formula — sometimes called “formula stretching” — is a dangerous yet fairly common practice for families that are struggling financially.
Duluth police Capt. Mark Hunter said, however, that authorities believe Nevaeh’s death was the product of her parents’ intentional, “malicious” actions.
“The case charges allege they maliciously caused harm to the child through dilution of the breast milk with water over a sustained period of time, failed to provide any medical treatment after birth and also failed to provide adequate sustenance to sustain life,” Hunter said. “The cruelty to children charges speak directly to the deprivation and neglect.”
Hunter said arrest warrants were not filed until more than a month after Nevaeh’s death because investigators were conducting “dozens” of interviews and awaiting the medical examiner’s report and other test results.
In addition to the alleged nutritional abuse, police said an investigation led them to believe that Nevaeh was “not properly fed or clothed” and was “often presented in poor hygiene.” A search of the couple’s Pleasant Hill Road apartment reportedly revealed “unsanitary conditions.”
Fristed’s Facebook page said the couple was married on Nov. 24, 2013, and court records suggested that they had financial issues. The Woodmere Trace Apartments where the couple lived filed dispossessory cases against Landell in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
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