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An Oklahoma father and mother have been charged with murder after they brought their severely malnourished - and dead - child to the hospital - and claimed she had the flu.
Anthony Yonko, 37, and Lisa Mitchell, 30, were arrested on August 2 and charged with murder in the death of the 7-year-old child. Yonko is also charged with one count each of torturing, maiming and death of a child by injuring.
Midwest City police responded to Saint Anthony’s Midwest Hospital on Friday afternoon after they were notified by the Medical Examiner’s Office.
Medical personnel told police the mother carried the child wrapped in a blanket into the hospital around 11:30 a.m. that day. The emaciated child was pronounced dead shortly after her arrival.
The child “had signs of rigor mortis and possible injuries internal and external,” the staff who attended to her told police, according to an affidavit obtained by Law & Crime, that revealed disturbing new details.
“[A doctor] stated when working on the child numerous amounts of black and dark red secretions came from the child’s mouth when pushing on her stomach area,” the affidavit states. “The child was extremely malnourished, weighing only 25 pounds and approximately 37 inches tall.”
Yonko, who told police he had been staying at the Vista Green apartments with the child’s mother, Lisa Mitchell, claimed he had gone to sleep around 9 p.m. the night before, leaving the mother and child on the couch. He said when he woke up, the child was “not moving and was sick and needed to go to the hospital.”
He also said that the child had been sick and that they had been feeding her “crackers and soup because she possibly had the flu,” though they had not been to a doctor since the girl was “much younger.”
Yonko said a “friend” took them to the hospital, but he could not provide the friend’s contact information to the police. He later clarified that his brother was the “friend” who helped them.
The brother allegedly told police that Yonko was “freaking out” that morning about getting a ride to the hospital because the child was sick. He agreed to do it and drove away because “he was afraid and needed to get to work.”
Police say Yonko changed his story multiple times during his interviews.
After Yonko was taken into custody and transported to the Midwest City Jail, he spoke with detectives again.
“During the interview Anthony changed his story numerous times stating the only people in the apartment were him, Lisa and (the victim),” police wrote in the affidavit.
“He later stated Lisa’s sister, boyfriend, and two or three other kids were in the apartment when he woke up this morning to Lisa saying that (the victim) was not moving. Anthony said that Lisa was playing with (the victim) this morning but then stated that she was not moving,”
Yonko claimed the child had weighed 50 pounds only four or five days earlier and was “completely healthy,” further stating that he “feeds the child all of the time.”
Both Yonko and Mitchell are being held in the Midwest City Jail.
