May 22, 2013
A three-year-old child is dead and lawmen say the mother and her boyfriend are the ones who killed him. The Edgecombe County sheriff's department has charged 19-year-old Lawanda Cooper and 23-year-old Osborne Bennett of Battleboro with first degree murder. Authorities say the mother called the sheriff's office saying her son was not breathing. The child was taken to Nash General Hospital, where he later died. Signs of abuse were discovered on the boy's body and an autopsy is being performed. But the story doesn't end there. During an interview with Cooper, investigators say they learned that two weeks ago Bennett, the mother's boyfriend, had placed the child in a hot tub as a punishment, which left him with severe burns on his body. The couple also has a four-month-old child, which has been taken into custody by the county's Department of Social Services.
