Police: Stepmother Inflicted Broken Bones, Internal Injuries

Over the sounds of a belt being used to whip a 4-year-old girl, a Silver Spring girl told police she heard her young step-sister crying and begging her mother to stop the abuse.

Montgomery County Police have arrested Aldercy Lugo-De Fuentes, 30, of the 100 block of Colony Road in Silver Spring, for child abuse of her four-year-old step-daughter. Alleged repeated beatings inflicted broken bones and internal injuries to the youngster, authorities claim.

Detectives were called to Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Aug. 26 after a 4-year-old girl was taken to the hospital in critical condition after becoming unresponsive at her home.

Lugo-Defuentes told police the victim had become “woozy, vomited and lost consciousness.” She was questioned and reportedly gave conflicting statements about multiple bruises all over the victim’s body. The injuries were in different stages of healing, and spotted on the child’s face, head, chest, back and collarbone area, police say.

Doctors said the 4-year-old girl suffered a severe laceration to her liver which caused significant internal bleeding. She also had numerous rib fractures, pelvic fractures and a sacral fracture (a bone at the bottom of the spine), all in various stages of healing.

When investigators spoke with the suspect’s daughter, she told detectives that she recently heard “whipping” sounds and knew her stepsister was being hit with a belt. The older girl told detectives that the 4-year-old cried and asked that the beating stop.

Detectives again questioned Lugo-De Fuentes, who reportedly told detectives she hit the child with a belt several times, and once with a shoe. Lugo De Fuentes also said she pushed her stepdaughter into walls and into an elliptical machine at home.

She also said she would slap the victim’s face, smack her in her ears, and squeeze her arms.

Lugo-De Fuentes was arrested Sept. 2 and charged with one count of first-degree child abuse, one count of second-degree child abuse and two counts of assault charges. She is currently being held on a $250,000 bond.

»Photo of Aldercy Lugo-De Fuentes, courtesy of Montgomery County Police