Finding quality child care is a challenge for so many parents. Sometimes it comes down to simply finding someone — anyone — who can make their lives easier. But sometimes, that leads to inadvertently not making the safest choices. A Florida woman faces manslaughter charges after a baby in her care died. The woman, Desiree Rentz, was running an illegal day care out of her home, but it wasn’t discovered until the baby died after being given medication Rentz wasn’t authorized to administer.
The incident took place on July 25, 2024, WWSB reported. St. Petersburg police were called to assist with an unresponsive baby at an apartment. When they arrived, they discovered that 31-year-old Desiree Rentz, was running a day care out of her one-bedroom apartment. According to police, there were about a dozen children in her home that day.
Rentz had licenses displayed in her home, police said. But upon further examination, they were for temporary foster care with a capacity of one, not a child care center.
Sadly, the 9-month-old in Rentz’s care died. The Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an autopsy and discovered the baby had been given cough medicine not recommended for children under 4 years old. The baby’s parents didn’t know about or give their consent for the medication.
It has taken SPPD nearly a year to put together the case against Rentz. Part of that was because of the time it took to get a toxicology report back, the department said. Additionally, they had to conduct interviews, FOX 13 Tampa reported.
“One of the other things that made it a complex investigation is that a lot of the children at the home were relatives of the person providing the care,” an SPPD representative told the news outlet. “So certainly, as the detectives started their interviews and inquiries, it was a fine line between what information to share and then trying to figure out exactly what happened.”
SPPD say that the victim is not related to Rentz.
Detectives arrested Desiree Rentz on June 24, 2025. She faces charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child and misrepresenting a day care facility resulting in death.
