Home Scandal and Gossip Why? West Virginia father strangles 6 month old daughter to death (5th...

Why? West Virginia father strangles 6 month old daughter to death (5th try)

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Jeffrey Hoskins Ripley WV
Pictured, Jeffrey Hoskins Ripley WV man.
Jeffrey Hoskins Ripley WV
Pictured, Jeffrey Hoskins Ripley WV man.

Jeffrey Hoskins Ripley WV man charged w/ strangling murder of his then 6 month old daughter after taken off life support. Made 4 attempts to suffocate girl.

A West Virginia father who allegedly strangled his infant daughter in Jackson County has been charged with murder following her death after more than a year on life support. An act that the man replayed for authorities using a teddy bear following his arrest on Thursday.

Jeffrey Hoskins showed the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office how he strangled the baby girl in their Ripley home during his court interview, WSAV reports. 

The baby was only six months at the time of the October 20018 incident. Despite suffering egregious injuries, she would survive fifteen months before passing away this week. 

‘The child had significant bruising under her chin, on her arms and legs,’ Chief Deputy Ross Mellinger said during a Thursday press corps meeting.

‘Upon finally speaking with Mr. Hoskins, Mr. Hoskins had confessed to the strangulation of the child in which she has died from those injuries.’

Hoskins was detained at the time and charged with child abuse. He took off after posting bail. 

He initially told authorities that the baby choked while he was feeding her. 

‘In a subsequent interview with the suspect, the child’s father Jeffrey Hoskins, he confessed to not only strangling the child but attempting on four previous occasions to smother the child,’ Mellinger explained to WV Metro News.

‘Through the medical testing at the hospital, along with the medical opinion of the doctors there, and combined with Mr. Hoskins confession itself, suggests that there were multiple occasions prior to this one here where the baby was smothered and/or assaulted by the same father.’

Jeffrey Hoskins Ripley WV
Jeffrey Hoskins Ripley WV. Police bookings.

6 month old child left on life support after suffering heinous injuries: 

Authorities said the girl was left deaf and blind because of her injuries WTAP reports.

She was placed on life support soon after the initial strangulation incident and died after being removed from life support earlier this month. Deputies share that the baby stayed on life support for 15 months because of legal challenges. The baby did die earlier in the week. 

A grand jury granted a murder indictment for Hoskins on Thursday. 

Hoskins was found hiding in a home in Arnoldsburg, West Virginia, where he is from earlier this month. At the time of the strangling incident, he was living at the home with a woman identified as his wife on Facebook. 

The woman is the mother of the man’s children. She is not facing charges at the time but authorities say further charges could be pending. 

Other children at the home have since been removed. 

Facebook profile’s for Hoskins and the children’s mother indicate that they had another child in May of last year, roughly 8 months after the incident with their other child. 

The incident WSAZ reported left the community reeling.

‘Children are a gift from God,’ said Melissa Burdette, a woman who lives just across the street from the home where the incident happened. ‘They are to be loved and anybody that would try to destroy a child, to me that’s disgusting.’

It remained unclear why the father sought the death of his then 6 month old baby daughter.

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