A babysitter has been arrested and charged with poisoning an 11-month-old Florida boy with antifreeze.
Anna Marie Adamo has been charged with aggravated child abuse, attempted murder, and poisoning food or water with the intent to kill or injury, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in the case.
The document says detectives began investigating the case in February after the boy was hospitalized and found to be suffering from ethylene glycol poisoning — the chemical found in antifreeze.
The boy’s mother said she dropped him off at Adamo’s home at about 9:30 a.m. on February 12. At the time, the child “was not mobile, not crawling or walking and could not feed himself.” At the time he was dropped off, the mother said the boy “was healthy and fine.” She said she breastfed him before dropping him off and left Adamo with two 3.5 ounce bottles of breast milk along with some solid food.
Adamo by kc wildmoon
She said she kept in touch with the babysitter by text throughout the day, and that Adamo texted at about 2:30 p.m. and said the child was tired and asking if she could put him down for a nap.
About an hour later, the child’s grandmother picked him up from the babysitter and brought him to her home, noting that he appeared more tired than usual and “fell asleep immediately.” She met up with the boy’s mother about two hours later and that he was still sleeping, appearing “lethargic, unalert, and not able to hold his head up.” She told the father “something isn’t right.”
On the way home, the boy began to vomit “a clear sticky, odd smelling vomit.” She called her husband, who directed her to an emergency room, where doctors initially suspected flu or pneumonia. The boy was transferred to a different hospital which was better equipped to handle those illnesses, but while there he had a “full cardiac arrest,” prompting staff to perform CPR for 10 minutes.
The boy was taken to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami in critical condition, where tests ruled out diseases. That’s when he tested positive for crystal oxilate, which comes only from a genetic condition or antifreeze poisoning. The boy tested negative for the genetic condition and remained in hospital for a week.
Investigators spoke with Adamo, who told them she’d given the boy a 1-ounce bottle at about 11 a.m., and not one of the two larger bottles his mother had left with her. She also told them that her husband did not come home for lunch even though security cameras showed that he did.
She further refused to speak with investigators without her husband’s presence, and he ended the interview when detectives confronted her with poisoning accusations from 2014. In those accusations, Adamo was again the babysitter when a child testied positive for high levels of ethylene glycol, although no criminal charges were ever filed in that case.
A warrant was issued for Adamo’s arrest on October 3, and she was taken into custody in Valdosta, Georgia, where she now lives. She was brought back to Florida on October 14 and given a $600,000 bond, court records show.
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[Featured image: Anna Adamo/Okeechobee County Jail]
