Cops in Portland, Oregon, have arrested a 38-year-old man who they allege beat his newborn son to death.
Arlo Darnielle-Arroyo was only 11 days old on May 4 when he was rushed to an area hospital. Suspecting abuse, medical staffers contacted police about the unresponsive baby.
Doctors dubbed the child’s injuries “suspicious,” according to a press release on the arrest of Arlo’s dad, Felipe Arroyo, Jr.
It was unclear what injuries the baby sustained, but even a minimal amount of shaking can cause infants to suffer life-threatening wounds.
Arlo, just 15 days old, died on May 8 and medical examiners determined that he died of homicide by blunt force trauma. But police at the time lacked enough evidence to arrest his father.
Investigators spent months building a case against Arroyo and a grand jury recently indicted the dad.
Police announced his arrest on three counts of felony murder on Monday, December 8.
Arroyo was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force and is currently held at the Multnomah County Detention Center.
Arroyo also faces first-degree assault and criminal mistreatment charges, according to the statement. Police further charged him with two counts of attempted coercion and witness tampering. However, a press release fails to mention what prompted the filing of those additional charges.
If convicted, Arroyo could receive life in prison.
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Arroyo remains in custody, and he has yet to enter pleas to the charges against him.
Online records accessed by NewsPlop did not indicate if he had hired a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.
Anyone with information about this case, who has not talked with police, is asked to contact homicidetips@police.portlandoregon.gov or (503) 823-0479 and reference case number 25-116240.
The boy’s death is one of the 45 that police have investigated this year.
Experts say that child abuse isn’t always obvious at first glance.
The National Children’s Alliance suggests looking for sudden shifts in mood and behavior, regression back to earlier behaviors, changes in sleep habits and appetite, and acting out, both aggressively and sexually. Abused children may also express a fear of returning home, and their grades usually suffer.
Abused children will sometimes have unexplained injuries, which can also contribute to their absence from school.
An estimated 558,899 children were reported to have been abused and neglected in the United States alone in 2022 — the most recent year that there is national data from the Administration for Children and Families Child Maltreatment Report.
Experts believe a large majority of abuse suffered by children goes unnoticed and unreported.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at least one in four girls, and one in 20 boys in the U.S. are estimated to experience child sexual abuse.
If you suspect child abuse, please call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or visit ChildHelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential, and the hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.