By admin 
ALLIANCE, Neb. (KNOP/Gray News) – A mother in Nebraska is accused of killing a 9-month-old after holding a blanket over the child’s head.
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Alyssa Parkins faces four charges, including intentional child abuse resulting in death and strangulation resulting in death.
According to the Box Butte County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were called to Box Butte General Hospital on the evening of June 22 after the infant died.
Parkins and her boyfriend, the father of the child, brought the infant to the hospital and told authorities that she choked on a cracker.
Parkins said she was able to clear most of the cracker, but she found the girl unresponsive later that day.
Authorities said Parkins brought the infant to the hospital without calling 911 or emergency services. She did, however, call the hospital.
Staff attempted life-saving measures, but the 9-month-old was dead. According to a petition, the girl’s hands and feet were “almost black with dirt” and her scalp was covered in “scaley, dead skin.”
Authorities later learned more from Parkins’s son, prosecutors wrote. Police think Parkins covered the infant’s head with a blanket and held it down as she was “crying bloody murder,” the petition shows.
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According to Parkins’s son, the baby was dead well before they left for the hospital. The boy then went on to describe how Parkins would spank both of them, prosecutors allege.
A search warrant was served at Parkins’s home, a fifth-wheel camper, some time later. Inside, authorities said they found no running water, little food and a bathroom full of dogs and their feces.
In 2022, Parkins’s partner — and father of the young boy in her care — was accused of killing her 9-month-old child on June 19. According to court records, the infant died from asphyxiation or suffocation.
A judge sentenced 30-year-old Riley Lenhart to 60 years to life for killing Parkins’s child.
Charges have yet to be filed for Parkins as of Thursday afternoon. If convicted, Parkins faces 20 years to life in prison.
The case remains active. Investigators are working alongside the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, Alliance Police and the Nebraska State Patrol.
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