BATAVIA, Ohio — A Clermont County couple are accused of neglecting their child's nutrition so badly the 4-year-old died from malnutrition, according to the Clermont County Prosecutor's Office.
Prosecutors said 40-year-old Tamara Banks and 52-year-old Christopher Hoeb have been indicted by a grand jury on charges of murder, involuntary manslaughter and two counts of child endangering.
According to the prosecution, Hoeb and Banks were the parents of a 4-year-old girl whom they found unresponsive on January 21, 2022. The couple called 911 and the girl was taken to a hospital; EMT paramedics were able to revive her, but she was still unresponsive, prosecutors said.
From there, the girl was taken to Cincinnati Children's Hospital for advanced care, where she was determined to be brain dead. Three days later, on January 24, the girl was taken off life support and died.
Prosecutors said the girl died as a direct result of neglect and abuse from her parents, Hoeb and Banks.
"Banks and Hoeb fed (their daughter) mostly Mountain Dew, through a baby bottle," reads a press release from prosecutors.
When she died, the 4-year-old girl had almost no teeth left in her mouth, because they'd rotted out, prosecutors said.
The coroner determined the girl's cause of death was diabetic ketoacidosis, a life-threatening condition that affects people with diabetes. Prosecutors said the girl had diabetes "that was left undiagnosed and untreated over a long period of time."
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