Nigerian Nurse Arrested In The USA After Allegedly Killing Baby With Hot Water (Photo)
Cold-hearted Oluyemisi Adebayo,Queens nurse was nabbed Wednesday
as she was about to board a plane out of the country and leave behind
her horrific crime — the killing of a 22-month-old girl from a bath so
scalding-hot the child’s skin peeled off, police said.
It
was the second day that Oluyemisi Adebayo, 54, was caring for Naomi
Mondesire at the child’s home on Memphis Ave. near 145th Ave. in
Rosedale.
The premature toddler was born at just 25 weeks and needed a tracheotomy tube to breathe.
Naomi spent her first year in the hospital, her grandmother said, and still needed to be fed through a tube.
Around 7:25 p.m. on Saturday,
Adebayo, a licensed practical nurse, submerged little Naomi in water so
hot that it actually burned pieces of skin off the child, according to
authorities. The young girl died Monday.
“She
couldn’t even scream,” said Naomi’s grandmother Gardite Mondesire, 54,
who was at a nearby library when a tenant called her with the terrible
news.
“When
I got home, my tenant was running around picking up pieces of skin. It
was all over the floor. It was all over the tub,” she said.
Mondesire
called Adebayo and asked her what happened. “She said ‘It’s bad. I did
something bad. The baby got burned,’” Mondesire said. “But she said she
didn’t know how.”
Adebayo was arrested around 7a.m. Wednesday
at Kennedy Airport as she tried to board a flight for Nigeria, where
she is from, authorities said. She was charged with murder.
The
toddler was rushed to Nassau University Medical Center with second- and
third-degree burns on more than 50% of her body, according to
officials.
“She’s
claiming it was a mistake,” said 35-year-old Corey Brock, Naomi’s
father. “It’s impossible. She knows what she did because she was trying
to flee the country.”
Because
of the child’s existing poor health, she was unable to fight off
pneumonia and a blood infection that the medical examiner later
determined was caused by the burns.
“The
tiny victim suffered extraordinarily painful injuries for several days
before she died,” said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. “This is a
terribly sad and tragic case that could have been prevented.”
Adebayo
told cops she had placed her hand in the water before putting Naomi
into the bath and only realized the dangerous temperature when she took
the toddler out and saw the skin on her legs peeling off, according to
the Queens DA’s office.
But
medical workers later told investigators the nature of the injuries did
not fit with Adebayo’s account, and that the child was likely submerged
waist-deep in 130-degree water for 30 seconds, according to officials.
Authorities believe that Adebayo intentionally put the child in the dangerously hot water, although her motive was unclear.
Naomi’s grieving mother struggled to find the words to describe her loss.
“She
was the strongest person I knew, not baby, strongest person I ever
knew,” said a shaken Cynthia Mondesire.“It’s senseless. She was my only
baby.”
The 32-year-old medical assistant said she suffered two miscarriages before Naomi was born.
“With everything that she’s gone through, she was a fighter,” Mondesire said. “She was just starting to thrive.”
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