More than a year after the sudden passing of her 2-month-old daughter, Shante Plummer, 39, of Steelton, Pennsylvania, has been charged with the infant's death. Police say the mom was co-sleeping with her daughter when she awoke to find the baby crying on the floor. But despite her best efforts, she wasn't able to get her help in time.
Police rushed to Plummer's home the morning of October 28, 2018.
Police were called around 7:45 a.m. in response to an infant who was having trouble breathing, according to Fox 43. Plummer told police that she was living at the home by herself with her seven children, and that the father of her 2-month-old daughter didn't live with them.
Charging documents state that Plummer had gone to sleep with her daughter face down next to her, but at some point she was woken up by a "wail" and found her daughter on the floor next to the bed. When she realized that something was wrong, she called 911, and an operator tried to walk her through the process of CPR. The infant was later pronounced dead.
Both police and EMT services did their best to assess the scene, but Plummer neglected to tell them that she'd been co-sleeping.
It was while police were investigating the scene that they pieced together what had happened and realized that the bed Plummer and her daughter had been sleeping on leaned to one side. Photos and measurements taken of the bed revealed that the left side of the bed was 8 inches higher than the right side.
It was then that Plummer told them that she was lying on the left side of the bed on her left side and had placed her infant on the part of the bed where it slopes.
A search warrant of Plummer's phone records also revealed that the mom hadn't immediately called police. Instead, she phoned the 2-month-old's father and “spoke to him for some time” before calling for help. A criminal complaint also claimed that Plummer was under the influence of marijuana, NBC 8 reported.
It was also later determined that the mom had rolled over onto her daughter while she was sleeping and been on top of her for some time.
An autopsy revealed the infant had six broken ribs.
Plummer was arraigned November 9, 2019, on charges of criminal homicide and endangering the welfare of children, the New York Post stated.
The charges come after a year-long investigation into the death. The mom is at Dauphin County Prison with no bail, and a preliminary hearing is set for Tuesday, ABC 27 reported.
