Photo: Moore County Sheriff's Office
A North Carolina father was charged in connection with the death of his two-year-old son. Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said that Aaron Lynwood Carter, 27, was charged with one count of felony involuntary manslaughter and one count of felony child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury after his son River died after being left in a room with a space heater for 12 hours.
The incident occurred over a year ago. Fields said that officers were dispatched to Carter's home on December 2, 2023, after receiving a report about an unresponsive child.
Investigators discovered that River was left alone in the room for 12 hours, where he was "exposed to elevated temperatures from a space heater."
According to The Daily Mail, authorities said it took over a year to charge Carter due to a delay in receiving the autopsy report from the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Major Eric Galloway with the Moore County Sheriff's Office told the outlet that officials received the medical examiner's report on Tuesday (January 7) and arrested Carter later in the day.
"As soon as we got confirmation of the cause of death, we arrested him," Galloway said.
Carter was taken into custody and is being held on a $500,000 bond.
