Cape Coral Father Arrested for Abusing Two-Month Old Twin Sons

Web Staff
By Web Staff
June 3, 2019US News
share
Cape Coral Father Arrested for Abusing Two-Month Old Twin Sons
Mugshot from Christopher Alan May. (Cape Coral Police Department)

CAPE CORAL, Florida—(WFTX)—Christopher May, 32, has been arrested and charged with abusing his 2-month-old twin sons, who suffered serious injuries, according to Cape Coral Police.

Police said the Department of Children and Families notified officers after discovering one of the babies had a severe skull fracture on May 26.

“The child was flown from Cape Coral Hospital to an out-of-county hospital, where it was learned that the child had also suffered fractured ribs and a fractured humerus, some of which appeared to be partially healed and occurring over time,” Cape Coral Police reported.

Based on this medical evaluation and other injuries, a medical check-up was conducted on the boy’s twin brother.

The brother was also found to have suffered skull fractures, a broken femur, multiple fractured ribs, and a broken tibia, according to authorities.

Both babies had to be flown to a hospital out of the county. Their condition as of Saturday night is unknown.

Stefanie May filed a domestic violence claim against May on Friday, the same day he was arrested.

May has since bailed out of jail and is expected to appear in court for the child abuse charges on July 1.

Couple Arrested for Child Abuse

Imagine you’re simply going about your job one day when all of a sudden, something happens that makes you take notice. What do you do? Do you mind your own business? Do you get someone to deal with it? Or do you take it upon yourself to act?

For Jordan Cooper, 21, a part-time server at Olive Garden in Paducah, Kentucky, on the border with Illinois, the choice was clear. Cooper came in for a Sunday evening shift, and her courage and decency changed the fate of two children.

اس پر ‏‎Olive Garden‎‏ نے شائع کیا جمعرات، 2 اگست، 2012

Cooper was given a table with Mark Lee Pierce, 33, and his girlfriend Jessica Woodworth, 36, who had an 11-year-old girl and a toddler with them. From the get-go, Cooper knew something was badly wrong about the scene. She was eight months pregnant at the time and was spending her weeks taking care of her sister’s two small children.

????

اس پر ‏‎Jordan Cooper‎‏ نے شائع کیا جمعرات، 6 دسمبر، 2018

When she saw the kids at the table, Cooper couldn’t believe how mistreated they looked. Though the couple had tried to hide the toddler’s body with a blanket, it slipped off, revealing “a lot of black-and-blue bruises,” as Cooper told Yahoo Lifestyle. During the meal, Pierce shoved food into the toddler’s face and threatened her.

For Cooper, seeing such violence towards an innocent child shook her to the core. As she told local news station WPSD, “For me seeing a baby like that up close, I couldn’t function, I couldn’t even sleep that night. I stayed up until 3 or 4 in the morning, just wondering ‘Is she going to be okay?'”

Thankfully, the young mother-to-be stood up and took action. Her first move was to take a photograph so that Pierce and the baby could be identified. To do this without tipping him off, she got the diners at the next table to pretend to be taking a picture. She discreetly slipped them a piece of paper with her phone number on it and they did so as soon as they could.

When Pierce started to become suspicious of Cooper and the other diners’ attention, the abusive parents quickly left the restaurant, leaving the concerned server with just enough time to follow them out and get a partial photo of their license plate number.

With the pictures as evidence, Cooper went online, sharing the distressing story on Facebook and asking for everyone’s help in tracking down the couple. She also managed to get in touch with an old classmate from elementary school, Aaron Caldwell, now a 911 dispatcher for the Metropolis, Illinois, police department.

Caldwell took it from there, using his police training to track the couple down to their place of residency in Paris, Tennessee, about 70 miles away. He passed the tip on to the sergeant on duty in the police department there, and the couple was apprehended and the children taken into state custody.

اس پر ‏‎Jordan Cooper‎‏ نے شائع کیا منگل، 5 مارچ، 2019

As Caldwell told WPSD, “I’ve got a two year-old and I’d hate to think that my two year-old was in harm’s way and nobody wanted to help.” For him, following the case through to end was not only what was natural as a father; it was also doing his duty as a police officer.

Jordan Cooper has since given birth to a healthy little girl and received messages of support from all over the country. However, she doesn’t see herself as a hero, as she posted on Facebook: “I don’t want to be thanked for doing something I would hope most would do. It’s our job as humans to protect these young children.”

I have so many people flooding my messages it’s crazy. I appreciate your support guys. I don’t want to be thanked for…

اس پر ‏‎Jordan Cooper‎‏ نے شائع کیا جمعرات، 7 مارچ، 2019

How to Report Suspected Child Maltreatment

If you suspect a child is being abused or neglected, contact your local child protective services office or law enforcement agency so officials can investigate and assess the situation. Most states have a number to call to report abuse or neglect.

To find out where to call, consult the State Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Numbers website.

The Childhelp organization can also provide crisis assistance and other counseling and referral services. Contact them at 1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453).

“Every year more than 3.6 million referrals are made to child protection agencies involving more than 6.6 million children (a referral can include multiple children),” according to Childhelp.

Epoch Times reporter Robert Jay Watson, NTD News staff and The CNN Wire contributed to this article.

2019 CNN Trademark

ntd newsletter icon
Sign up for NTD Daily
What you need to know, summarized in one email.
Stay informed with accurate news you can trust.
By registering for the newsletter, you agree to the Privacy Policy.
Comments