The parents of a one-month-old who died after he was submerged in a hot bath in July have been charged in his death, Baltimore County police said.
Eugene Joseph Buchta, 25, of the 2800 block of Harford Road and Rachael Anne Johnson, 25, of the 200 block of Patapsco Avenue were indicted by a grand jury on first-degree child abuse and related charges, police announced on Tuesday.
Police said Buchta was giving the infant a bath in a small bathing tub on the night of July 2 when he left and returned to find the child submerged. When he took the infant out of the water, police said he noticed that the water was very hot.
Police said the boy’s parents did not take him to the hospital, and instead decided to put ointment on him. The boy became unresponsive the next day and they called 911.
Police and fire personnel were called an apartment in the 1800 block of Marshall Road in Dundalk and transported the boy to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead less than an hour later.
An autopsy identified the cause of death as complication of thermal injuries and the manner of death a homicide.
Neither had attorneys listed in online court records.
twitter.com/janders5
