Miami

Miami Mother Facing Child Abuse Charges After Young Son's Hand Badly Burned

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A Miami mother accused of burning her own 4-year-old child and waiting to get him treated has been arrested.

Suzune Theodore, 22, was arrested Tuesday on charges of child neglect causing great bodily harm and child abuse, according to an arrest report.

The report said Theodore's son was burned inside their apartment along Northwest 4th Court.

Suzune Theodore
Miami-Dade Corrections
Suzune Theodore

Theodore had told investigators that a maintenance person had come to the apartment in October because the water was extremely hot, the report said.

Theodore said that on Nov. 1, she was in kitchen and her son was in bathroom when she heard water running and assumed he was brushing his teeth, the report said.

She said she heard screaming and ran in bathroom and found that her son's hand had been burned, the report said.

Theodore said she put cold water and an ice pack on the boy's hand, but when his hand was bleeding through his bandage the next day she brought him to a hospital.

But when the boy was interviewed by a Department of Children and Families investigator, he gave a different story.

According to the report, the boy said Theodore's boyfriend put the boy's hand in hot water, and said the boyfriend also caused a laceration to the boy's elbow.

DCF photographed the boy and the pictures "depict a long period of abuse," including marks on his back "consistent with being struck with a whip," the report said.

The boy was treated in the hospital for a severe third-degree burn which required surgery, the report said. He was put in DCF custody with his siblings.

Theodore denied that anyone else had been in the home and denied knowing anyone with the name of the boyfriend given by her son, the report said.

At a bond court hearing Wednesday, Theodore was ordered held on a $9,500 bond.

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