OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Deputies in Osceola County said a woman was arrested after the drowning death of a child.
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Investigators said they were called to a home on Kenansville Road around 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 11 for reports of a child in distress.
When deputies arrived, they found a 5-year-old “unresponsive, naked, and covered in mud.”
The child was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead around 6:17 p.m.
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Doctors told deputies that the child’s death appeared to be due to drowning.
Deputies said they questioned the child’s stepmother, 25-year-old Cheyenne Star Fite, about the death.
Fite told detectives that she was watching the boy and his two other siblings, ages 3 and 5, and allowed them to run around the property because the power was out.
The property had several flooded areas due to rain from Hurricane Helene.
Fite told detectives that she had turned her back on the children “for 5 minutes” and later heard one of the children yell out the boy was underwater.
She later found the child unresponsive inside a muddy ditch on the property, pulled him out and yelled for her mother to help.
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According to the arrest report, they eventually called 911 for help and to report the drowning.
Deputies said Fite was aware that the child did not know how to swim.
According to a report, the man-made ditch where the boy drowned was near a pig pen and filled with run-off water from the animals.
Deputies said the water appeared to be filled with fecal matter and urine from the pigs.
Channel 9 is working to gather more details and will provide updates on Eyewitness News.
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