Saynab Dahir (Dakota County Jail).
A Minnesota woman was recently arrested for starving her toddler son to death, authorities in the Land of 10,000 Lakes say.
Saynab Abdullahi Dahir, 35, stands accused of one count of manslaughter in the second degree, four counts of child endangerment, and one count of harassment – stalking.
Authorities began investigating after 3-year-old Adnan Abdullahi collapsed at a park in Eden Prairie in June 2023.
He would die several days later.
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First responders at the park noticed the boy appeared to be malnourished, according to court documents obtained by Saint Paul-based ABC affiliate KSTP and The Minnesota Star-Tribune.
The child”s ribs were “clearly visible,” authorities said. He also had “joints quite swollen and very poor limb development,” and several of his teeth were missing or broken, authorities said.
Dahir allegedly said her son had been sick for a week prior to the collapse. She went on to say he refused to eat solid foods the day before and had been tired, according to law enforcement. The mother allegedly added that she thought her boy was getting better – but when she gave him a sip of water, his eyes rolled back in his head.
When the boy’s eyes lurched, Dahir cried out for help, police say, prompting a bystander to call 911 about a child in cardiac arrest.
The mother went on to explain that she brought her children to the beach that day because she thought Adnan needed to “sweat out” whatever illness had been plaguing him, police allege.
At the hospital, the situation proved even more dire.
Doctors reportedly confirmed the diagnosis of malnutrition, noting the child was also severely underweight. He was, as his mother allegedly presumed, dehydrated when he went into cardiac arrest.
A CT scan showed “volume loss of his brain,” according to court documents. Doctors expressed concern that this was due to malnutrition.
In response to medical professionals, the defendant allegedly said Adnan had not eaten for two or three days before visiting the beach and that when they arrived, he refused to swim with his siblings, who are ages 5 through 9, according to law enforcement. The mother, however, allegedly denied any other symptoms.
Dahir also allegedly said she did not bring her children to checkups because she is “too busy with the kids,” according to court documents. She went on to allegedly admit Adnan had a severely limited vocabulary for a child his age.
Police allege the defendant visited her son in the hospital but “repeatedly interfered” with his medical equipment. During one incident, her hands had to be physically removed from such equipment, authorities claim. Repeat interference along these lines allegedly led to her being removed from Adnan’s room.
Authorities reportedly say the mother also repeatedly touched her ailing son while he was in the hospital.
Staff reportedly described seeing Dahir make the boy bite his own tongue by manipulating his jaw, push on his chest and pressure his airways, and rub his throat, despite repeated warnings that such actions would interfere with the boy’s medical care. Finally, after many such alleged incidents, the mother was only allowed to visit with others present.
The boy ultimately died on July 13; he had never once regained consciousness after passing out in the park.
His cause of death was determined to be a brain injury caused by his cardiac arrest – exacerbated by a staph infection, strep throat, bronchopneumonia, malnutrition, and an E. coli-based urinary tract infection, doctors said.
“A pediatric child abuse specialist reviewed [Adnan’s] medical records and advised that [his] severe malnutrition significantly increased the likelihood of the infections noted in the autopsy report and significantly increased his risk for a severe or fatal outcome,” the criminal complaint reads.
An autopsy report found Adnan weighed 25 pounds when he died.
Due to neglect concerns, the Burnsville Police Department began investigating how Dahir’s four other children were treated, authorities say.
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In court documents, Adnan’s father, who had recently returned stateside from a lengthy international trip to take care of a sick parent, said he almost did not recognize his son. The father reportedly added that his wife had a history of declining to take their children to the doctor – even when they were sick.
The father relayed additional information about the other children, reportedly saying they would only eat a spoonful of food at a time and that they told him doctors were not good people because they kill people.
The children also allegedly relayed to their father a system wherein their mother forced them to vomit if they gained too much weight. To do this, Dahir would sometimes put objects in their throats as a form of medication or “massage” to induce vomiting, police reportedly said. Other times, the children allegedly said, their mother would sit on their stomachs until they vomited. In other instances, she would allegedly jam her fingers down their throats until they threw up, the complaint says.
The children also described a separate-but-related punishment component, police say. When one child complained about their sibling being forced to throw up, Dahir would allegedly force another sibling to puke as well. The inducement of vomiting had gone on for years, one child allegedly told police.
As for Adnan, two of his siblings allegedly described seeing their mother force him to throw up even after he grew gravely ill.
The surviving children are all currently living with their father.
“All children were medically evaluated, and doctors noted they were medically underweight,” the complaint goes on. “All four children showed significant weight gain once placed in [their father’s] care.”
Dahir is not currently listed as an inmate at the Dakota County Jail. The defendant is next slated to appear in court on Aug. 6.
