Authorities say a woman from North Carolina killed her 2-year-old niece early this month.
The News & Record of Greensboro said that 59-year-old Rubie Charlottelette Thomas was arrested on Wednesday and charged with first-degree murder and intentional child abuse causing major physical harm.
The child was named Shade Wilhite in an arrest order filed on April 18. This is what the newspaper said.
The News & Record said that the girl was hurt in many ways, including bleeding on the brain, near her spinal cord, and in her eyes; broken ribs; bruised intestines; bleeding on the scalp, skull, around the ribs, and in the back; injuries to her face; cuts in her mouth; an abrasion on the back of her left leg; and more than 50 contusions.
WGHP-TV said that the girl died from “non-accidental trauma,” which is what the cops in Greensboro said.
WFMY-TV said that when officers went to a Greensboro home on April 1, White was having a heart attack.
Investigators were told by the child’s 5-year-old brother, who also lived in the house, that Thomas pushed his sister downstairs because she was “messing” with an aquarium.
WFMY said that White was taken to a local hospital, where she later died from her injuries.
The Family Victims Unit of the police department started an investigation after medical workers and officers said they saw signs of possible child abuse. This was reported in the News & Record.
“At the time the defendant hurt the child, she was taking care of the child in her role as grandmother,” WGHP said, citing an arrest warrant.
The News & Record says that Thomas’s first court date was on Thursday, but she was not there in person.
