Name: Dante Mullinix.
Died: September 15, 2018.
Age at death: 2.
Cause of death: Abuse (Head injury, strangulation).
Location: Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA.
Details:
Dante was a happy baby. He had a developmental delay and had difficulty chewing and swallowing. He could say a few words, like “ew” and “yeah”, but was generally nonverbal. He was being evaluated for autism.
His aunt called him “Monkey Man” because he had a favorite blanket with a monkey on it which he carried everywhere. Before he went to sleep, he rubbed his face against his blanket.
Dante’s mother left him with a friend she had known for three weeks. Dante was brought to the hospital, unresponsive, with internal injuries, a compressed neck, and a brain injury, and bruises in various stages of healing. When he died a few days later, the babysitter was charged with murder. Dante’s aunt, however, believes someone else must be responsible for Dante’s abuse because Dante also tested positive for genital herpes, which neither his mother nor the babysitter had.
The babysitter was acquitted. Dante’s mother admitted to child neglect for not seeking help for an infection Dante had, and was sentenced to 5 years probation.
References:
Mother won’t serve jail time for neglecting Dante Mullinix before his death
Police charge aunt for sharing documents about abused nephew’s death: ‘I’m exposing the truth’
‘This poor kid was doomed from the beginning:’ The tragic life and death of Dante Mullinix
Autism Memorial 