An Oklahoma mother and her boyfriend who allegedly glued shut their 7-year-old daughter’s mouth, have been charged with murder.
Violet Mitchell, 7, weighed only 29 pounds when she died in August. Now, the girl’s mother Lisa Mitchell, 31, and her boyfriend Anthony Yonko, 37, each face a second-degree murder charge, court records show.
The child endured extensive abuse in her short life, according to an arrest report obtained by KOCO. She died on August 2, according to her obituary.
Her mother would beat the child “mostly with a broomstick” and “would tie her legs with zip ties to the crib,” the mother’s cousin told police in the report.
When she could, the cousin would untie the little girl and take glue out of her mouth when it was sealed shut, she said.
Mitchell and Yonko took violet to the SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital in early August. About an hour after arriving, Violet was pronounced dead. A doctor told police at the time that the child had bruises on her body, red fluid coming out of her mouth, and weighed just 25 pounds, KFOR reported.
The medical examiner’s office ruled the child’s cause of death to be “failure to thrive” after finding the top of a baby bottle lodged in her small intestine, KOCO reported.
She had “sunken eyes” and was “wearing a diaper that was otherwise sized for a 3-year-old,” the office noted. She was “essentially skin on bone,” the autopsy report said, according to Law & Crime.
“It is unclear to this examiner if the intestinal obstruction by the foreign body is accidental or intentional,” the report stated.
The Oklahoma Department of Human Services told the outlet: “This child’s death is a profound tragedy, and we are grateful to our law enforcement and medical partners whose efforts will help us and the community better understand the circumstances surrounding her death.”
Tiffany Mitchell, Lisa’s sister, and David Yonko, Anthony’s brother, also face second-degree murder charges, records show. Their role in the matter is not immediately clear.
All four have pleaded not guilty, court records show. They are being held at Oklahoma County Detention Center.
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