A couple adhering to a diet of uncooked organic foods faces manslaughter charges after their 5-month-old daughter dies.
By Associated Press
Published June 7, 2003
MIAMI - A couple devoted to a vegetarian diet of uncooked food were charged with manslaughter Friday in the malnutrition death of their 5-month-old daughter, who died weighing less than she did at birth.
Lamoy Andressohn, 27, and Joseph Andressohn, 34, also were charged with neglecting their four surviving children, who were taken by the state after their sister Woyah's death May 15.
Woyah weighed 6.99 pounds when she died. Her mother told investigators she weighed 7 pounds at birth. Doctors say a full-term baby should weigh about 15 pounds at 5 months.
Investigators say the surviving children, ranging in age from 11/2 to 6, were also malnourished, and two showed signs of rickets. The vitamin D deficiency is avoided by exposure to sunlight or consumption of vitamins or vitamin-fortified food.
Woyah died several days after neighbors in their Homestead apartment complex complained about the family to the state Department of Children and Families.
Nutrition experts say the "living foods" diet of uncooked organic food followed by the family must be balanced for good health and growth.
The siblings have gained weight while maintaining a vegetarian diet since their sister died. They are staying with a relative.
The parents could face 30 years in prison on the manslaughter charge and five years on each neglect charge.
The mother said she breast-fed the baby. Her 4- and 6-year-old brothers told investigators the girl was fed coconut milk, almond milk and avocado juice.
According to National Center for Health Statistics charts, she weighed 6 pounds less and was 2 inches shorter than the lowest acceptable size for a 6-month-old - the age she would have turned a few days after her death.
The siblings also weighed less and were shorter than the lowest appropriate figures for their ages based on national standards, Miami-Dade police Detective Douglas McCoy wrote in a court report summarizing the investigation.
The 18-month-old sister was developmentally delayed, and the 3-year-old brother's speech was impossible to understand, investigators said.
The children said their youngest sister could not raise her head or sit. One said one of her eyes was sometimes "puffed up while the other was closed," McCoy's report said.
Babies usually can raise their head and chest around 3 months.
