Florida police have arrested a 31-year-old woman for the death of a 9-monh-old boy nearly a year ago.
The boy, Timothy David Smith, was left in the care of Desiree Rentz on July 25, 2024, according to St. Petersburg Police. They were told that the baby was unresponsive and wouldn’t wake up from a nap.
When they arrived at the apartment, they found that “Rentz was running a daycare with more than a dozen children in her one-bedroom apartment.”
Further investigation uncovered that she was not, as she told the parents, a licensed daycare operator. She had licenses displayed on her wall for temporary foster care with a capacity of one, and the state Department of Health and the Department of Children and Families said she had never been licensed to run a daycare.
An autopsy on the boy found that he had been given cough syrup not recommended for children under four, and the parents were not aware and had not given consent.
The US Marshals Service assisted in Rentz’s arrest. the was charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child and misrepresentation of a childcare facility resulting in death, WKMG reported.
Police did not explain why it took just short of a year to filed charges and make an arrest. She was still behind bars on Wednesday with $175,000 bond, according to jail records.
