Dead baby, kids with bugs in their ears found inside Arizona home, cops say

A Phoenix couple was arrested on charges of child abuse after police say they found a dead 1-month-old and children with insects crawling out of their ears in their Arizona home.

Police arrested Donald Roy Ferguson, 38, and Emmaline Amelia Ramirez, 29, on Jan. 7, according to AZ Family. Two days earlier, firefighters found their baby dead in their home.

The parents told police that they called 911 when their infant wasn’t breathing. The couple have four other children: another 1-month-old, a 15-month-old, a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old.

Court documents say that Ferguson called Ramirez to come home because their infant “was choking and unresponsive,” according to AZ Family. Ferguson says that Ramirez performed CPR on the baby but that the child stopped breathing again and they called 911.

When authorities found the other children, the other 1-month-old had “breathing problems,” and was taken to Banner Thunderbird Medical Center, according to AZ Central. The baby had “traumatic head injuries and brain bleeds,” according to court documents, and was taken for emergency treatment.

The three other children had “extremely soiled diapers, and insects crawling out of their ears,” investigators told AZ Central. They were taken by the state Department of Child Safety.

Ramirez told the police that Ferguson “gets angry and violent,” according to KVOA.

According to documents, one of the children also told cops that Ferguson “threw the 1-month-old who had died on the ground,” KVOA reported.

This story was originally published January 14, 2020 at 12:47 PM with the headline "Dead baby, kids with bugs in their ears found inside Arizona home, cops say."