Cross the threshold of inhumanity and you will find nightmarish layers of cruelty. We see stories like this one every once in a while. Stories which cannot be understood.
In San Tan Valley, deputies discovered a 14-month old who weighed 13 pounds. He was so malnourished, so weak, he couldn't hold up his head.
Deputies described his arms and legs as "stick skinny."
His diaper was soiled and the smell of urine was overwhelming.
Deputies found a bottled of curdled milk next to the boy. They said it appeared he drank some of it, then vomited on the mattress several times.
Lt. Tamatha Villar, from the Pinal County Sheriff's office told us, "neither parent thought there was a problem."
The sheriff's office says the parents had fed the boy stage three baby food and ravioli, even though he was toothless.
The only food in the house, enough baby formula to make four ounces, which the child guzzled.
The boy's mother, 22 year-old Rhandi Brown is free... released on bail after her arrest.
Before authorities could put the boy in a foster home, he was taken to the hospital, where he was treated for malnutrition.
He gained weight, but there's no telling what the real damage may be. If his parents didn't tend to his physical needs, they likely didn't tend to his developmental needs as well. When he was placed in foster care, deputies say, he didn't know what to do with the toys he was given. He had apparently never played with them.
As his body fed on itself to survive, wasting away, his brain may have also been starved. Of love, bonding, attention, stimulation. Police already suspect he's "developmentally delayed." Certainly, they're not doctors, but they've seen this kind of thing before.
There are levels of inhumanity and neglect. There are depths of cruelty which can hardly be imagined, so unbelievable there seems no punishment in our justice system which could match it.
Blame society, blame poverty, blame drugs, or choose a dozen other social ills. This case goes beyond all of that to despair, because there hardly seems a solution. It's impossible to comprehend how anyone's journey in life could lead them to do this to a child.
But we have to find a solution, somehow, because this is a crime against the basic human values we all share.
