Manahawkin Man Sexually Assaulted, Murdered 2-Year-Old Girl: Police

A Manahawkin man has been charged with the murder and sexual assault of a 2-year-old Camden County girl, authorities said on Friday.

The Gloucester City girl suffered blunt force trauma to the head, was suffering from bruises all over her body, and was repeatedly vomiting before she died, according to a probable cause statement from the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.

Michael Disporto Jr., 22, was charged with her murder, as well as first-degree aggravated sexual assault, Camden County Prosecutor Mary Eva Colalillo and Gloucester City Police Chief Brian Morrell announced on Friday.

The child’s mother, Amber Bobo, 26, of Gloucester City, was charged with second-degree endangering the welfare of a child.

Disporto is not the girl's father. He and Bobo have been dating for two weeks, police said.

An ambulance responded to a 911 call from a home on the 100 block of South King Street in Gloucester City just after 6 p.m. on Sunday, July 3.

Upon their arrival, they found the unconscious girl in her mother’s arms. She was suffering obvious injuries to her head and face, and was taken to to Cooper University Hospital.

She succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead two days later.

The official cause of death is blunt force trauma to the head.

Disporto and Bobo are both being held on $1.5 million bail, according to the Associated Press. It wasn't immediately clear if they had attorneys representing them.

Bobo and Disporto had picked up the girl, identified as A.S. in the statement, from her father’s house in Cape May County at about 6 p.m. on July 2.

That night, Disporto accompanied the girl to the park alone for about 10-15 minutes because he said he “wanted to get to know her better,” police said.

He later spent about 30 minutes alone at the fireworks with the girl when Bobo said she was too tired to go with them.

Bobo slept in bed with the child that night, as they always did because it was the only air conditioned room in the house. Disporto slept on the couch.

However, when Bobo woke up at 7 a.m., the girl was no longer in bed with her, despite the fact that she never woke up and left the room on her own in the middle of the night, according to the statement.

She found her daughter lying on the couch, wrapped in a blue blanket, and Disporto was outside.

After going back to sleep for another two hours, Bobo unwrapped her still sleeping daughter from the blanket to discover bruising on both sides of her forehead, and that she was dressed differently than when she had gone to bed the night before.

Disporto claimed the girl fell in the park the night before, and suggested putting ice on the bruises and letting her sleep, police said.

When she bathed her daughter at 11 a.m., she noticed more bruises on her genitals and back.

Disporto denied causing the bruising, but also convinced Bobo not to take her daughter to the hospital because he was worried what people would think.

Later that day, when the couple took the girl to the Deptford Mall, the girl began to vomit.

She vomited a second time in the bathroom, after which the couple continued to shop for another half hour, according to the statement.

The girl vomited a third time when the couple returned home, and Bobo noticed the girl’s eyes began to roll back into her head, police said.

When Bobo continued to insist on taking her to the hospital, Disporto told her he would “never see her again,” police said.

She finally called 911 at 6:04 p.m., when the child became unresponsive.

Upon arrival at the hospital, the child was suffering from multiple internal injuries and needed immediate brain surgery.

Following the surgery, she was examined for brain activity twice on July 5, and there was no brain activity either time before she was taken off life support at 6:26 p.m.

The investigation is ongoing.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Camden County Prosecutor’s Office Detective James Brining at 856-225-8439 or Gloucester City Police Detective Joe Hopkins at 856-456-0408. Information may also be emailed to ccpotips@ccprosecutor.org.