Mother Responds to Toddler's Beating Death

The mother of a child beaten to death in a foster home says she had gotten to know the family and previously thought well of them.

Stephany Cunningham's daughter, Aniyah Batchelor, 2, who died on July 3, had been in foster care with a Fort Washington family in the 1800 block of Taylor Street since November, according to The Washington Post.

The 12-year-old son of the foster parents is charged in the death.

Cunningham, 25, who lives in Adelphi, has two other children, a 5-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy. The 5-year-old and Aniyah were both placed in foster care, she said, after one of her children was burned by scalding water in a bath, the Post reported. Cunningham said she was not the person bathing the child.

There is one open case against Cunningham in family court, according to Maryland court records.

“I want to know how can they let kids watch kids and let my baby get beat,” Cunningham told the Post, crying on the phone, the paper reported.

The 12-year-old boy is , according to Prince George's County police.

The foster couple's children were home alone, with a 15-year-old girl in charge, police said. Another 4-year-old child was also home during the attack.

On Monday, Police Cpl. Clinton Copeland said there was no other update at this time about the case. When asked whether the foster parents would be charged, Clinton referred Patch to Pat Hines, a spokesman for the state human resources agency. Hines could not be contacted in time for this report.

Read more on The Washington Post.