Baby starved to death in car seat 'as parents ate in endless buffet
restaurant'
Little Betsey Kee Stephens weighed just four pounds when she was found "unresponsive and cold" strapped into a car
A 22-day-old baby starved to death in a car seat as her parents ate in a restaurant chain famous for its 'endless buffet'.
Little Betsey Kee Stephens weighed just four pounds when she was found "unresponsive and cold" strapped into a car in central Florida, police said.
Her parents Ruby Stephens, 23, and Roy Stephens, 48, have been charged with first-degree murder.
They called emergency services but Betsey died in hospital.
The pair had been eating in a branch of the Golden Corral restaurant chain before the tragedy.
A description on the company's webiste reads: "Golden Corral's legendary, endless buffet features an abundant variety of delicious familiar favorites and continuous new menu offerings for breakfast, lunch and dinner."
A medical examiner later determined Betset's death as a homicide resulting from "starvation due to neglect."
An autopsy found the infant weighed four pounds and one ounce at death, having lost about 2.5 pounds since her birth.
Normal weight for her age was about eight pounds, the medical examiner's office noted.
The baby was dehydrated and appeared not to have been fed for six to seven hours prior to her death, according to the report.
Mike Link, assistant chief of Lakeland Police, called pictures of Betsey "absolutely horrible."
"She suffered tremendously over the 22 days that she was alive," he told a news conference.
Ruby Stephens initially told police she had been breast-feeding the baby every few hours.
But after police told her about the autopsy's findings, she acknowledged Betsey had not been fed for much of their day-long road trip, with highway traffic making it difficult to exit to feed her.
The mother later told police that the infant had shown signs of health issues, but she had missed an appointment to have her weight checked before the Florida trip.
Roy Stephens was not the biological father, the mother told authorities, and had not paid much attention to her from birth.
Police said the couple from Tennyson, Indiana, were traveling with two other children, ages 1 and 2.
Both appeared healthy and have been taken into protective custody.
The mother told authorities that after arriving at a hotel earlier on Dec. 23, she had checked the baby's feet and covered them with a blanket because they were cold.
The family went to the Golden Corral to eat with relatives.
When the mother went to take the baby out of a car seat, according to the arrest report, she noticed the baby was "completely unresponsive and cold to the touch.
