Mother Ignored Battered Child's Injuries Before She Died: Police

A Camden woman who was arrested on child endangerment charges this week did not seek medical help for her child for three days after she was allegedly beaten by a caregiver, according to a probable cause statement provided by the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office.

The caregiver was the Najugan Ross, who was described as the father of the woman's oldest child. He was watching three kids at the time of the alleged beating.

An autopsy postmortem examination revealed the child's cause of death to be multiple blunt force injuries. The death has been ruled a homicide.

The prosecutor's office hasn't said anything about charges against Ross, and a spokesperson could provided no further comment on the ongoing investigation early Thursday afternoon.

Police say 20-year-old Lucy Gunter first noticed her child had suffered a deep cut and several other lacerations to her face and was missing a tooth when she returned home from work on Saturday, July 15.

Ross was watching her 4-year-old and two other children at the time. He said he beat the girl because she wouldn’t eat.

Gunter didn’t seek medical attention, despite her daughter’s continued deteriorating condition. The child stopped eating and slept most of the time, according to police. She told detectives she had kept her daughter home from daycare on Monday because of the injuries to her face.

Police said Gunter didn’t seek medical attention until Tuesday morning, when she found her daughter unresponsive in her bedroom. At that time, she called 9-1-1.

The child was taken by ambulance to Cooper University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at about 8:58 a.m.

Gunter was subsequently arrested and charged with one count of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child.

Gunter was remanded to Camden County Jail pending the pretrial detention hearing set for Friday morning.
Under the recent Criminal Justice Reform rules, the court may order the mother be detained without bail or released with conditions.

During a candlelight vigil on Wednesday night, family members described Gunter as a troubled domestic abuse victim who never sought help for herself, according to the Courier Post. Gunter's mother said she hoped her daughter would be sent to a psychiatric facility, and that Ross "needs mental help, too."

Patch file photo