A mother from Indiana who said she forgot to feed her baby sometimes was given decades in prison for the baby’s death from starvation.
Online Warrick County court records show that Caylin Monroe was given a 65-year prison term on November 15, 2017. This was about a month after a jury found her guilty of murder and neglect of a dependent resulting in death.
The charges come from the death of Monroe’s 3-month-old son Silas Chance-Kent Scott in 2022. An autopsy showed that he died of hunger, as reported by PEOPLE.
A statement from the time said that the investigation began in February 2022 when the Warrick County Sheriff’s Office was called to a home to check on an unconscious baby.
The statement of probable cause that PEOPLE already had shows that Monroe, who was 23 years old at the time, told police that Silas was born “small but healthy” and “had trouble growing.”
Monroe said that she fed the baby earlier that day in the interview, but the baby’s stomach did not have any formula or milk in it after the death. She then said she forgot to feed her son sometimes when he was sleeping or when she was busy with her other kids.
The affidavit also said that Monroe had been probed by DCS before because of something that happened with another child. She had to write down what she fed that child every day.
Monroe was quickly arrested, along with Jakob Scott, the baby’s 22-year-old father. Scanlon is said to have told cops that the baby wouldn’t eat if he didn’t cry during an interview. He also couldn’t remember if Silas had been fed the day he died.
Scott is being charged with murder and neglecting a dependent person, which caused death. Online court records show that Scott’s jury trial was canceled on November 12. There will be a status meeting on December 2.
In September 2024, The Courier & Press said that Scott had pleaded not guilty.
You can go to www.childhelp.org or call 1-800-4-A-CHILD, which is the National Child Abuse Hotline, if you think a child is being abused. No one will be able to hear your calls for any reason. 24/7, the number can be called in more than 170 languages.