A Pennsylvania youth football coach is charged with brutally raping and assaulting his 10-month-old baby daughter, causing her death.
Authorities say Austin Stevens, 29, sexually assaulted his infant daughter, Zara Scruggs, then conducted internet searches on his cellphone, typing:
“What if you don’t hear baby heart or beat.”
“My baby isn’t breathing.”
“How do you know if a baby is dead.”
“If baby stops breathing.”
CBS Philly reports police responded to a 911 call about a child not breathing on Saturday night.
First responders who arrived at the home at 10:40 p.m. found Zara unresponsive and wearing a blood-soaked diaper.
She was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital shortly after midnight on Sunday.
An autopsy revealed Zara suffered blunt force trauma to her head, she had been brutally raped and sustained anal rectal trauma.
Stevens delayed calling 911 for an hour while he flirted with two women on Instagram, according to police. He never mentioned his daughter in the chats.
He later told police he panicked and made the internet searches.
He is charged with aggravated assault, rape of a child, involuntary deviant sexual intercourse, and other related counts.
Zara’s mother, Erica Scruggs, shared her grief in a Facebook post.
“I’m not okay,” she wrote. “I really have no words. We have to fight for my baby.”
A GoFundMe account raised more than $45,000 for funeral expenses.
The prosecutor said Stevens had sole custody of Zara under an agreement with the child’s mother.
Stevens had recently moved to a house off of the 3400 block of Germantown Pike. Police said there was no heat or water at the house.
He is being held in the Montgomery County Correctional Facility on $1 million bail.
