Posted on 07/17/2009 10:54:39 AM PDT by BBell
A 3-month-old Westwego girl covered in rat bites was found dead in her home Thursday, and authorities were trying to determine whether they played a role in her death.
Natalie Hill was found shortly after 7:30 a.m. in her crib by paramedics responding to an emergency call. When paramedics and police officers arrived, they found the child's father standing in front of the house in the 700 block of Central Avenue, yelling that his daughter was dead inside, said Westwego Police Chief Dwayne Munch Sr.
The parents were identified by neighbors as Robby Hill and Casey Laine.
Munch said the child had what appeared to be "hundreds" of bite marks on her body and severe damage to her right leg and nose. The officers saw footprints on the bloody sheets in the crib and determined that rats or other small rodents had done the damage.
The Jefferson Parish coroner's office had not determined the baby's cause of death Thursday. Munch said the child might have been dead before the rats attacked her because the girl's parents did not report hearing her scream. The adults were in the front room of the home, he said.
Several of his officers were deeply troubled by what they saw, Munch said.
"This was not something you see every day," he said.
Neighbors said rodents have been a problem in the area for some time and have gotten into several homes.
Annette Stevens, who lives next door to the child's family, said the girl's parents always took good care of her and her siblings. She said the family was cordial and seemed happy.
"They never neglected the children; they were always clean and well-fed," Stevens said.
However, she said rodents were often seen running through the streets and she had seen Natalie's
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
Westwego couple relocates after their 3-month-old daughter covered in rat bites found dead
Casey Marie Laine, second from left, is comforted by her aunt, Dawn Camardelle, left, cousin Bernadette Perez, second from right, and mother, Lisa Lenormand, right, in Westwego on Friday, July 17, 2009.Laine is the mother of three-month-old Natalie Marie Hill who was found dead, covered with rat bites, in her Westwego home on Thursday.
ping
Sounds like a CSI story in the making - they do still show CSI, don't they?
We will see what the autopsy says.
You’re kidding, right?
A three month old in a crib full of rats? Who’s fault would
that be? My God!
Well two things are clear:
1 - B Obama is at fault.
2 - B Obama hates white people.
Do you think they made rat feet from potatoes to make footprints? /s/
Rat bites used to be a huge concern. Watch the movie “Lady and the Tramp”. Rats used to get into cribs and bite babies. Especially if they went to bed with milk on their mouths.
Although, I’m not sure why the baby didn’t scream or why the parents didn’t check on her.
Wow, the double whammy of possible SIDS and the horror of rats chewing on her little body.
Good Lord.
Prayers up.
Rat bites are fairly distinctive. I can’t really think of anything else that’d look like rat bites except maybe another rodent with similar dentition. Stab wounds from a weapon or tool would be very unlikely to be both the right depth and shape.
I kept tame rats for several years, and my oldest female was rather prone to biting for the first few weeks. I got pretty well acquainted with being bitten til she calmed down.
It’s a “punch” like a lancet, rather than ripping and gnawing like a dog bite. Relatively clean, wide as its the two front chisel-teeth that are used for biting, very slightly curved due to the shape of the teeth.
I remember “Lady and the Tramp.” But would rats attack and kill a live baby?
I thought white folk were excommunicated from Nola unless...Oh,never mind.
I’m suggesting the baby may have died prior to the rat bites.
Westwego is next door to NOLA in Jefferson parish. Mostly white.
Hundreds of rat bites = neglect.
Yes. I was born on an Army base and we lived off base in a small house that was divided into two tiny two room apartments. My Dad woke in the middle of the night and saw a huge rat sitting on the edge of my crib looking at me while I slept. Dad kept a pistol handy at all times. He shot it right off the rail.
Wild rats are very bold. We live in the country now and a few years ago my neighbor burned down his old barn. I watched the big barn rats run across the road and right under our house. We put out poison but before we could kill them two managed to get up into the kitchen cabinet via the water pipe. I heard them in the cabinet and opened the door. One of them stood on it's back feet and growled at me like a dog. I slammed the door and yelled for my husband. He told me to jerk the door open and when I did he shot it. Wild rats can be very dangerous to deal with. I put a large rat trap in the cabinet to catch the other one but it was too big for the trap. He shot that one too.
Now I keep poison under the house at all times and haven't been bother by anymore rats or mice. It is secure enough though that dogs and cats can't get to it. Having a Jack Russell in the house deters them too.
The lack of screams is suspicious.
I took care of an infant who was hospitalized for 80+ ferret bites to the face and neck. The child was sleeping on the floor at a friend’s house after being fed, the ferret crawled under the door, smelled the milk, and attacked. IIRC, there were similar cases in the literature of babies being attacked by ferrets after feeding. I wonder if this is what happened here?
See post 21; I agree.
This is a DISGUSTING story. That poor baby is in Jesus’s arms where it’s safe.
Yoi...and I go nuts when I see a small mouse!
Although you may not have rats in your house at the moment, they can swarm in small groups and attack......
Once one finds their way in, they leave a scent trail and others will quickly follow.......
A couple of rats (or one large one) could easily find there way into any home and that they attacked a baby would not be surprising. Before poisons, this was not an uncommon occurance.....
>>Wow, the double whammy of possible SIDS and the horror of rats chewing on her little body.<<
THAT is the most realistic explanation of them all.
If her breathing was inhibited and her heart still beating, she still would have bled a lot. Rats or SIDS, she may well have been found dead in the morning.
It scared me to put my babies in another room. They slept within arms reach until 9 months when I was assured each could sit up.
Rat bites. Uh, huh. Personally, I smell a rat!
Same here! I had the bassinet at first to be rolled right by my side at night and after about four or five months, a crib in my room. At about a year I would move them to another room and then move on to toddler bed, etc...
But I couldn’t sleep with them in another room. No way.
Pelican State ping
The thought of a groggy man firing a gun directly at an occupied crib is frightening and horribly stupid. Being fully awake would not have really made it any better, not to mention what may have been on the other side of the wall.
Well, there was nothing on the other side of the wall and I’ve never known my dad to be groggy. I’ve seen him go from sound asleep to wide awake in seconds. You can bet if he was awake enough to grab the gun and shoot, that he was 110% awake. Stupid he isn’t!
I’ll stand by my statement, with no harm or insult intended. It was a rat for pete’s sake ... hardly something that was likely to kill you in a moment ... and hardly something that warranted the risk associated with taking a shot at a crib that contains a baby. I’m sure you dad is very good with a gun. So am I, but I wouldn’t shoot at a rodent on the rail of my grandbaby’s crib. It goes against the rules of firearm safety and it also flies in the face of common sense.
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