HORRY COUNTY, SC (WMBF) – Two Little River residents have been arrested and charged with child abuse Friday after their five-week-old baby suffered a spiral fracture June 2.
According to a police report from the Horry County Police Department, officers responded to a call for a welfare check on a child after the complainant received a phone call from Seacoast Medical Center about a five-week-old with a fracture to her arm.
At that time, officers then responded to the child's home along Landing Road in Little River, where they spoke with the baby's parents, James W. Fargis, 29, and Ashley Bonass, 22.
Fargis claimed he went to pick the baby up out of a swing in the early morning hours when it was dark in the room. According to Fargis, he said he heard what sounded like a toothpick breaking, but the baby did not cry.
Upon further inspection of the baby, Fargis claimed he saw her "arm was hurt." When Bonass called the baby's pediatrician, she was told to take the baby to the ER, which they then did around 4:45 a.m.
Fargis told officers he thought her arm had been caught in the padding of the swing when he picked her up.
Bonass told officers the baby suffered a spiral fracture in her arm, and provided the officers her discharge papers from Seacoast Medical Center as proof.
According to the report, the complainant told police that for a spiral fracture to occur, the bone had to have been twisted. Fargis also said he wondered if the baby had a calcium deficiency and asked the doctor how much force it would take for the break to happen.
At that time, the child was placed into custody with the Department of Social Services.
Online booking records with the J. Reuben Long Detention Center indicate both Fargis and Bonass were arrested Friday morning and charged with abuse/to inflict great bodily injury upon a child and unlawful neglect of a child.
Both remain incarcerated at this time with no bail set.
Copyright 2011 WMBF News. All rights reserved.
James Fargis claimed the baby's arm broke as he picked her up out of a swing in the dark (Source: J. Reuben Long Detention Center)
Bonass has been charged with abuse and unlawful neglect of a child (Source: J. Reuben Long Detention Center)
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