A FIVE-month-old baby was starved so badly by his parents that he weighed less when he died than when he was born, a coroner said.
Hannibal Oceja suffered a fatal cardiac arrest in February, weighing just five pounds.
That is one pound, seven ounces less than Hannibal weighed when he was born.
A coroner ruled he had died of failure to thrive, undernourishment and insufficient fluid intake.
The boy’s parents Anthony Oceja, 30, and Loreana Martinez, 25, were charged with murder on Tuesday.
First responders who treated Hannibal reported that his “bones could easily be seen, his spinal cord appeared as if it was about to poke out of his skin and his rib cage could easily be seen.”
A paramedic who turned up at the couple’s home in Las Vegas, Nevada, even had to ask if the baby was five weeks or five months old, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported.
Martinez insisted that her son was a “perfectly healthy” on multiple occasions and claimed her two other children had “developed small”, according to the report.
She denied that she was asked by a doctor to supplement Hannibal’s breast milk last December, and insists she breastfed multiple times a day.
The mum also disputed an arrest report which said she missed several doctor’s appointments for Hannibal in the weeks leading up to his death.
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Social services did not investigate the family before the boy died.
Along with murder his parents have been charged with abuse of their two year-old daughter, and three year-old son, who have been taken into care.
The couple also face an animal cruelty charge over alleged neglect of their two dogs.
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