5-Month-Old Louisiana Girl Dies After Suffering 3rd Degree Burns, Mother's Boyfriend Charged With Murder

A Louisiana man has been charged with murder after his girlfriend’s infant daughter died due to severe torture.

According to arrest records, 23-year-old Gage L. Thibeaux was charged with second-degree murder and was booked early Saturday morning into West Baton Rouge Parish Detention Center.

Yancy Guerin with the West Baton Rouge Coroner’s Office said the 5-month-old baby girl suffered 3rd-degree burns on over 30% to 39% of her body. According to Guerin, the infant was severely malnourished and weighed just under 8 pounds at the time of her death.

According to the West Baton Rouge Sheriff's office, the gruesome incident took place Friday (June 5) at the Motel 6 on LA Hwy 415 in Port Allen.

The infant’s body has been sent for an autopsy. Even though the cause of the girl's death has not yet been revealed, the West Baton Rouge Coroner’s Office is investigating the case as a homicide.

"We have officially charged [Thibeaux] with second-degree murder under the element of inflicting cruelty to juveniles," Tony Clayton, First Assistant District Attorney with the West Baton Rouge District Attorney's Office told local sources.

"The evidence will show this baby was treated extremely bad. It’s enough that, as a grown man, I just couldn’t look at the baby long," Clayton added.

Maj. Zack Simmers of the West Baton Rouge Sheriff's office identified Thibeaux as the boyfriend of the infant's mother.

According to the records, Thibeaux and the woman along with her two children were living at the Motel 6 at the time of the incident. The mother, whose identity has not been revealed was also arrested. She is charged with principal to manslaughter for failing to notify the authorities about the horrifying crime.

The woman’s 2-year-old child has been taken into protective custody by the Department of Children and Family Services, Simmers added.

It is still unclear as to what led Thibeaux in committing such a horrifying and merciless crime. The West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office is conducting an investigation and a spokesperson from the team said that the investigators will leave “no stone unturned” in ascertaining the motive behind such gruesome murder.