WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ind. (WDRB) -- A 20-year-old Little York, Indiana, woman was arrested and charged with level three felonies, including neglect of a dependent and battery.
Kaitlyn Hopkins is accused of injuring her fiancé’s 2-and-a-half-year-old son back in August. The investigation lasted six months.
The University of Louisville Pediatric Forensic Medicine Unit officials they had “GRAVE concerns” for the child’s safety.
The probable cause affidavit lists five pages worth of injuries to the boy, including that Hopkins texted her fiancé, Kody Shaffer, saying "BTW our son got his damn leg caught in his bed again he's babying it again."
Doctors said he has a medical condition causing a developmental delay and he had “the motor skills of a four or five-month-old.”
“He should have no bruising, period,” Indiana State Police Sgt. Carey Huls said. “He couldn't roll over, sit up, that type of situation. So, any bruising, any injuries had to be caused by someone else.”
The documents also reveal texts from Hopkins saying, "I’m literally bawling my eyes out because he stopped breathing because of me."
Police said Shaffer got home from work, took his son to the hospital, and that's when doctors found bruises and cuts from head to toe, broken bones and malnutrition.
They said his "injuries meet the definition of child abuse by torture."
“Some of the injuries had healed,” Huls said. “Some of the fractures had healed without being reported.”
Police said the boy was immediately taken from the couple.
“Child Protective Services investigators did an outstanding job — also contacted us,” Huls said. “Everybody worked together (and) did a great job making sure that child was never placed in any hard again and stayed with other family members at that point.”
Hopkins is due back in court at the end of the month.
Copyright 2020 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
