Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 8, 1995 TAG: 9503080111
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It wasn't the first time the toddler's face was so swollen that his eyes nearly closed. Fresh burns and scabbed-over wounds were evidence of what the boy had suffered.
``He was abused. I seen it,'' said neighbor T.A. Board. ``I've seen him being punched and beat. The whole time he was up there, he's been beat.''
The only thing different about the beating the 18-month-old received early Tuesday was that it sent him to the intensive care unit of Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley.
And it began a police investigation.
At about 4:30 a.m., rescue workers responded to Hunt Manor Apartments in Northwest Roanoke after getting a report of a child not breathing. They found Anthony fully clothed on a bed. As they were taking him to the ambulance, they noticed burns on his feet and alerted police.
At the hospital, doctors discovered that the boy was bleeding internally in the head area. There were fresh burn marks on the tops and sides of his feet, on his buttocks and on his left ear. His face was swollen. His inner ears were bruised, indicating he had been beaten about the ears. There were cuts on his stomach and thigh. Portions of the skin on his buttocks and feet appeared to be missing, police said.
As Anthony gradually recovered from his injuries, Roanoke police began to ask exactly what had happened in the second-floor apartment.
And friends and relatives began telling the story of a little boy held prisoner, never allowed to go outside, made to sleep on two hard tiles.
``He's never said one word,'' Board said. ``He don't smile. If you tickled him, he never smiled ... It was like he was just there.''
The boy was in the care of a friend of the family as the mother searched for a place to live, according to relatives. The boy's father is in prison.
The family friend, a 24-year-old woman, told detectives that the boy received his facial injuries after he fell on the sidewalk, according to a police news release. She said he sustained burns while he played in hot water in the bathtub.
``This is all a shock to me,'' said Lois Phanelson, the child's great-aunt. ``There was a lot of trust with [the woman]. But the first suspicion came about last week, when my niece told me the baby fell and that [the woman] wouldn't let her see the child.''
Others had seen the marks, too. Board said the child had been with the family friend about two months. Board said she had seen the boy being beaten.
``I've seen his face swollen, his whole face,'' she said. ``His eyes, his jaw, his lips, his feet have been burned ... I've seen him hit with a sandal one day last week. If he didn't stay in the bathtub, or on the toilet, or didn't eat his food, he got beat.''
``I was going to call social services, but I didn't want to be in it,'' Board said.
As of late Tuesday, no one had been charged in the beating. Anthony was listed in stable condition.
by CNB