A South Georgia couple were arrested on child cruelty charges over the weekend after a malnourished 2-year-old was taken to a hospital with two skull fractures, authorities said.
Officers responded to Southeast Georgia Medical Center about 5 a.m. Saturday after getting called about a suspected case of child abuse, Kingsland police said in a Facebook post.
According to investigators, the 2-year-old had cuts and bruises all over their face and body and weighed just 18 pounds.
Police said the child had a cut on their eyebrow and facial swelling. Doctors also discovered bruises and cuts on the child’s chin, neck and back, authorities said.
“The nursing staff also commented that the juvenile was seemingly malnourished,” Kingsland police said in a news release.
Due to the extent of the injuries, the 2-year-old was taken to Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, where doctors learned the toddler also had two skull fractures and a lacerated liver, police said.
Later that day, officers arrested the child’s mother and another man on child cruelty charges.
Dakota Danielle Poturich, the child’s 21-year-old mother, faces one count of first-degree child cruelty, jail records show. The other man, 32-year-old Christopher Allen Miller, is charged with aggravated battery, two counts of first-degree child cruelty and one count of third-degree child cruelty.
Poturich and Miller remain in the Camden County Jail without bond, online records show.
Investigators have not provided an update on the child’s condition.
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Credit: AJC
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