CAMDEN COUNTY, Mo. — A Linn Creek woman was arrested after deputies received a report a child in her care had been burned.
On Nov. 30, Amanda “Lerea” Terbrock, 27, of Linn Creek was formally charged with abuse or neglect of a child, endangering the welfare of a child, and two infractions of failure to secure a child in a child seat.
According to court documents, the Camden County Sheriff’s Office received a call about a child in Terbrock’s care with possible burns that weren’t being treated. Deputies tracked her down to the home of a man she was in a relationship with. Three children aged 1, 3 and 7 were at the residence, including the one with burns.
Terbrock told the deputies that she did have a child with burns, and that child had received them from tripping and falling into a wood-burning stove.
Deputies demanded to see the child with a burn after Terbrock refused to let them enter the home. Terbrock brought the child wearing only a t-shirt and diaper outside in 21-degree weather. The child also had a dirty pink- and white-striped sock taped closed over her hand. Deputies asked Terbrock to remove the sock and observed a severe burn from the child’s wrist to the tips of her fingers.
Terbrock told deputies that she called a pediatrician, who told her she didn’t need to bring the child in. Later, she told deputies that a friend looked up the injury online and she decided the child didn’t need to be brought in. Hospital staff also discovered she never called the pediatrician.
She also told the deputies the injury had happened four or five days prior. She told hospital staff it had happened a week and a half prior.
The deputies called an ambulance to have the child taken to a hospital. Terbrock refused the ambulance and said she would take the child to the hospital herself. Terbrock came back outside with two of the children and when deputies asked if she had proper car seats for the children, she said she did. She did not, which is why she received the two infractions of failure to secure a child in a child seat.
Hospital staff saw that there was a small spot on the hand that was becoming infected and that the child did not have use of the hand. The child was taken to a burn unit in Columbia.
No court date was set for Terbrock at the time of this writing.