NEW CASTLE, Pa. – Charges have been filed against a woman for the death of an 18-month-old girl in Pennsylvania, announced the state’s Attorney General on Thursday. Aleisia Owens, 20, is facing charges including criminal homicide, attempted homicide, aggravated assault of a child, and endangering the welfare of a child.
The charges stem from the death of 18-month-old Iris Alfreda in June 2023. Emergency responders were called to the home on June 25, 2023, after Iris was found unresponsive. She was transported to UPMC Jamestown Hospital for treatment and later flown to UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, where she died four days later.
According to Attorney General Michelle Henry, Owens, who was dating the girl’s father, had been abusing the girl for months before her death. The Office of the Attorney General and New Castle Police Department conducted an investigation into the alleged abuse and death, leading to the filing of charges on Thursday.
Investigators found that months before the baby’s death, the child had ingested 20 “water beads,” along with button-shaped batteries and a metal screw. Owens had been researching online the harm that water beads and batteries can cause children before the child ingested the items.
An autopsy performed the day after Iris’s death showed that the cause of death was acetone poisoning, which caused organ failure. Medical experts concluded that the child was exposed to acetone just before her hospitalization.
Attorney General Henry stated, “The details of this case are heartbreaking. It is hard to fathom someone taking deliberate steps to harm a completely helpless child, then mislead investigators about what happened.”
Owens has been denied bail due to the charges.