Nathalyz Rivera Death: Pa. Parents Charged With Starving Their Disabled 3-Year-Old Daughter To Death [VIDEO]

A severely disabled 3-year-old girl was found dead Monday. Nathalyz Rivera's father found her unresponsive inside the family's bug-infested home around midnight, but called her mother, who was at a male friend's house, instead of 911, Homicide Capt. James Clark said. After arriving home, police say the mother and her male friend took Nathalyz to Albert Einstein Medical Center where she was pronounced dead at approximately 1:50 a.m. It is believed she was starved to death because she weighed just 11 pounds when she died. Philadelphia police held the girl's parents for questioning.

Carlos Rivera, 30, and his wife Carmen Ramirez, 27, were charged Tuesday with third-degree murder. They have four other children, who were placed in protective custody. Neither parent immediately had a lawyer listed in court records, and attempts to reach relatives proved unsuccessful. They lived in a rented row home on a neatly kept block of mostly retirees. Police said the home was in deplorable condition, infested with insects and rodents that they suspect caused some of the bruising on the girl's body.

Police did not disclose Nathalyz's specific health issues, although Ramirez told police that her daughter was born blind and had Down syndrome, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Nathalyz, a twin, was not in preschool or enrolled in any other city services despite her special needs. The family last had contact with the Department of Human Services in 2008, before she was born.

"It's very sad, very disturbing," Clark said of the girl's death, which the medical examiner said was primarily caused by starvation. "This is one of the worst cases of abuse that I've seen in my five years at the homicide unit. I saw the photos, and even for me, they were difficult to look at."
Neighbors told reporters this week that they rarely saw the family, although others said they saw the children, but not Nathalyz, playing outside while the mother watched them or Rivera worked on cars. He has prior arrests for assault, endangerment and threatening behavior, although many of the charges were ultimately dropped.