OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — The parents of six children were arrested after Osceola County Sheriff's Office detectives say they beat their 6-year-old son for drinking out of a toilet in a hotel room.
Sheriff Marcos Lopez explained during a news conference Wednesday how the two adults arrested, 25-year-old Bianca Blaise and 22-year-old Larry Rhodes, consistently beat their children until one eventually died.
It started in March when the family, originally from Fort Myers, rented a hotel room in Osceola County. All eight members of the family were living in one room, and the kids were not in school, Lopez said.
Law enforcement was brought in on July 5 when a 911 call came in from Blaise. She reportedly told the dispatcher her 6-year-old son was drinking water out of the toilet and drowned.
Once a deputy arrived on the scene, he immediately started to perform CPR on the child until paramedics arrived. Lopez explains the child was eventually sent to the hospital and was placed on life support for life-threatening injuries.
The couple beat the 6-year-old for drinking out of the toilet — that's why he wasn't breathing, the sheriff's said. Blaise allegedly beat the child before Rhodes started to repeatedly throw punches at him with a closed fist to the head and stomach.
The 6-year-old child suffered from a brain bleed and lacerated liver. He ended up dying a few days later in the hospital. Lopez says the cause of death was ruled blunt force trauma to the head and abdomen.
The two parents, both arrested initially for neglect, were arrested again Tuesday for murder. They are now being held in jail without bond.
But the 6-year-old wasn't the only one targeted by the parents, Lopez explains. The other five children, ages ranging from 5 years to 10 months old, were allegedly also abused with bruises, cuts and marks on their bodies.
A 4-year-old child and a 5-year-old child were able to tell detectives details of what happened.
“We got here right in time, unfortunately not on time to prevent [the child’s] death but…we were able to take these kids from these monsters and hopefully they’ll never see these people again,” Lopez said.
The State Attorney's Office also charged the parents with aggravated manslaughter of a child, aggravated child abuse and five counts of child neglect.
All five of the surviving children are in a foster home, where they are doing well, Lopez said.