Ohio parents slept 12 hours while two-and-a-half month baby boy was left unattended in a bouncer; Police chief unleashes opinions

WELLS TOWNSHIP, Ohio (WTRF)- Wells Township Police Chief Sean Norman is frustrated that Joseph and Star Reese were upstairs in bed, unable to be wakened, while their two-and-a-half month baby boy was left unattended in a bouncer.

He was found dead there Saturday morning.

“They didn’t forget to take their medication,” said Chief Norman. “They didn’t forget to take their nerve pills. They didn’t forget to take their painkiller. They didn’t forget to take their muscle relaxers. But they forgot to get their daggone baby. They left their baby downstairs while they went upstairs and slept. You know what happens to babies when they’re left in a bouncer for over 12 hours? They die.”

Chief Norman said the house, at 108 Strowbridge Street, where they’d only lived for one month,  was “disgusting.”

“There’s stuff smeared on the walls,” he said. “Garbage everywhere. Ask these people where they worked at. They didn’t! So they got no excuse to not clean your daggone house. They got no excuse to not care for your children. ‘Cause they did both of those very very poorly.”

The chief said if his department had gotten a call about that family just one day earlier, this would not have happened.

“Had my officers or myself been called to that house, on any other day for any other reason, them children would have been removed from that house. And we didn’t get there in time. And I can’t tell you how that feels. Can’t tell you how that feels that we were not able to get there before this happened to this precious two-and-a-half month old little baby boy named Sterling.”

Two other children, a five-year-old girl and a seven-year-old boy, have been placed with a family member.

Both parents are jailed, facing charges of felony child endangerment.

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