JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Lonna Barton, the mother of missing 21-month-old toddler Lonzie Barton, was arrested Tuesday night and charged with child neglect and lying to police.
During Lonna Barton's questioning, new details came out about the days leading to Lonzie's disappearance and what led to the charges being filed against her.
The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said the child neglect charges stem from a few things, including the fact that Lonna Barton knew her boyfriend and Lonzie's caregiver, Ruben Ebron, kept drugs in the apartment they shared, in the same room where Lonzie and his 5-year-old sister slept.
Police said Lonzie also had worrisome health conditions the day before he was reported missing, and Lonna Barton and Ebron got into an argument over bruising found on the back of Lonzie's head.
Some of the symptoms Lonzie was suffering from included vomiting, feeling lethargic and a yellow fluid coming from Lonzie's ears.
Police said even after the argument and with Lonzie's condition, Lonna Barton left her two children in the care of Ebron while she went to work at Wacko's.
Two local pediatricians, who have never treated Lonzie and are not involved in the case, said Lonzie's symptoms combined could mean one of two things.
"Certain kinds of really serious infections, like meningitis, could cause the bruising, the lethargy, the vomiting, but it also could be trauma as well. Injury to the head. Sometimes, we call it closed head injury, even skull fractures, but all of those can lead to a child being lethargic, difficult to arouse, inconsolable crying or confusion," said Dr. Vandana Bhide, a board certified internist and pediatrician at Mayo Clinic.
Bhide said a full physical exam of a child with these symptoms would need to be done to rule out one diagnosis or the other. She said blood work would be taken to check for infection, and X-rays or a CT scan would need to be done in order to tell if there was trauma to the head or neck.
"There are certain kinds of fractures that are very suggestive of unintentional kinds of injuries. But toddlers also fall and hurt themselves, and it is very common, which is why you have to look at the whole picture, and that's why I think seeing a doctor would be helpful," Bhide said.
Dr. Kathleen Dully, who is the medical director for First Coast Child Protection team, believes a child should be taken away from the caregiver, no matter how the conditions started, to be safe and get checked out.
"There are fairly common situations where a caregiver is concerned that something happened to their child, but they haven't been told that anything happened. That's the time you need to think that something may have happened, not necessarily unintentionally. You do need to think the evil thought that there are caregivers that don't want to take care of children. They need to be relieved of that duty and don't take any chances," Dully said.
News4Jax also asked both doctors if Lonzie's symptoms could be from a drug overdose, since JSO Chief Tom Hackney said that Ebron stored drugs in the apartment with Lonzie, but both doctors said that while vomiting and fatigue can be seen in drug overdoses, the other symptoms are less likely.