A Wausau baby sitter linked to an infant's death last week is being held on a $250,000 cash bond in another case where she is accused of injuring a child in her care.
Marissa Tietsort was arrested after a 2-month-old boy was found unresponsive, according to a press release from the Wausau Police Department. The infant's mother had just picked up her child from the baby sitter's home minutes before. The mother contacted police, who determined with preliminary information that the child had died in Tietsort's care.
According to the criminal complaint in the child abuse case, police were called Aug. 2 to Aspirus Wausau Hospital, where an 11-month-old child's father reported that he believed Tietsort injured the toddler while baby-sitting. She told the father that the child had fallen off the couch while sleeping, which resulted in injuries to the face. Doctors told the father that the injuries were not consistent with a fall from that height, the complaint said. The parents of the girl decided to press charges, the complaint said.
As they were investigating that case, police learned that Tietsort had been reported for child abuse in June 2017, when an infant was taken to the hospital with a bruised face and skull fracture. Tietsort told investigators that the infant's older sister had tried to take the bottle away from Tietsort while she fed him. She told police the bottle struck the infant, which caused the injury, according to court documents.
Police then learned that four of Tietsort's children had been removed from her care and that social services was not aware that she had another infant of her own, the records said.
Tietsort's boyfriend in 2010 had also filed for temporary restraining orders after he told investigators she was abusing their two sons.
Police determined that the latest case, from last week, was a homicide based on preliminary results from an autopsy conducted Friday in Madison, according to a press release.