A Florida babysitter has been accused with ignoring, beating, and murdering a three-year-old child in his care after leaving the kid’s mother a note claiming he accidentally drowned in the bathtub – despite the fact that the autopsy proved he’d been beaten.
Joshua Manns, 25, allegedly contacted Jameson Nance’s mother while she was at work on June 11 and told her her kid had drowned in the bathtub. When she returned to her West Melbourne residence, Manns was unable to be found and had never requested medical treatment.
However, investigators claim he left her a handwritten note explaining that he had a seizure while Jameson was in the tub and drowned.
Officials stated in the letter that he wrote because ‘no one would trust him and he did not want to spend his life in jail with something he did not commit.’
The medical examiner, however, found no proof that the small kid drowned, instead concluding that he was suffering from battered-child syndrome, with weeks-old injuries including a fractured rib, knife injuries to the skull, and brain swelling.
Jameson had a fractured leg last March, and the Florida Department of Children and Family Services investigated another broken leg he had when he was just a year old.
And, just before he died, the department went to his daycare to look into ‘suspicious wounds,’ such as burn scars on his arm.
Authorities claim Manns is not the boy’s dad, yet he did live in the same apartment building as Nance and his mother. He allegedly left the Grand Oaks at the Lake Apartments immediately after his phone chat with Nance’s mom and was gone when cops came.
West Melbourne police then issued a public appeal for aid in locating Manns, characterizing him as a prime suspect in the investigation.
Detectives Seek Public’s Help The West Melbourne Police Department is requesting the public’s help as we continue…
Posted by West Melbourne Police Department on Wednesday, 23 June 2021
More than two weeks later, on June 28, he was apprehended by US Marshals in Georgia while attempting to flee to his home state of West Virginia with the assistance of his family,
On Friday, he was arraigned, standing motionless as a Florida judge convicted him with first-degree murder, negligence, and abuse.
Manns is currently being detained as a fugitive without bail.
