Lakeland baby starves and dies in a well-stocked home

This just sounds too evil to believe! How could anyone do this? It's not that they didn't have enough money and since they had other children, it is not as if they didn't know children need to be fed.

Lakeland baby starves in a well-stocked home
By Jessica Vander Velde, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Thursday, November 5, 2009



LAKELAND — The pantry and refrigerator were full of juice, pasta, snacks and canned food — plenty to fill the bellies of the two adults and five children who lived in the house on Sunshine Drive.

But not enough for the baby.

Only 2 ounces of formula were found Monday in the home where paramedics pronounced an emaciated 5-month-old girl dead. She weighed just 6 pounds.

Chauntasia Gardner starved to death in a house with more beer than infant formula, investigators said, and the Polk County Sheriff's Office blames the parents. Tivasha E. Logan, 25, and her boyfriend, Chauncey Gardner, 27, were charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.

"It is mind-boggling," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. "I've done this job my entire adult life, and I've seen a lot of violence against children and babies, but I can't ever remember seeing one starve to death. This child was tortured for days on end until she finally died from starvation."
read more here
Lakeland baby starves in a well-stocked home