A mother of an Edgecombe County child under the age of two has been charged with felony child abuse by neglect resulting in serious bodily injury. And a Pitt County man who also allegedly took part in the abuse of the child and was the one who assaulted the child was arrested for his role in the crimes against the child.
According to information obtained by the Tar River Times from someone close to the situation, the child was carried to Vidant Edgecombe Hospital for wounds he had on his body, mainly above the shoulders. As a result of the severity of the wounds, Vidant Edgecombe Hospital contacted the Edgecombe County Sheriff’s Office because the mother, Amber Smith Dixon, 27, lives in the county.
During the investigation, Pitt County authorities learned that the abuse had taken place in early July and lasted over a five-day span where the child received injuries to his face, head and neck.
According to a source who didn’t want to be identified that has knowledge of the incident, the child had been punched in several places in the facial area, burned by a cigarette and had a mark on his neck that was said to be consistent with someone twisting his shirt tight around the child’s neck and swinging him back and forth causing a burn mark.
The second person charged in the case is Elton Joshua Pritchett, III, 37, of Greenville.
Pritchett was arrested and taken into custody where he was served with warrants from the case that include felony intentional child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury and felony assault by strangulation.
According to the source, the wounds the child suffered came at the hands of Pritchett while the child was in his custody on Penny Hill Road.
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