BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – Months after a baby boy was found unresponsive in a plastic storage container in his bedroom, two women are facing charges in connection with his death, according to the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies said the investigation began on March 1 when three children between the ages of two and four were found walking unsupervised on Caroline Street in Cape Canaveral.
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When authorities located the children’s home, they said they found 41-year-old Tanya Galvin asleep inside but she said she didn’t know where the children were and she assumed 25-year-old Ricky Nicole Tubbs was watching them since she was their foster mother.
Records show deputies got permission to look around the home in order to get diapers and clothing for the 2-year-old child, who smelled of urine, and as Deputy Kimberly Reites was in the children’s room she found a nude, unresponsive infant in a plastic storage container.
She performed CPR until paramedics could arrive and during that process water was purged from 6-month-old Scorpio Sharp’s mouth, according to a news release.
Sharp was taken to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
An autopsy determined that he died as a result of drowning, records show.
Deputies said the investigation into the boy’s death led them to discover that the victim and another child had been placed in Tubbs’ care by the Department of Children and Families and her and her partner were the only two adults authorized to watch the children.
Tubbs also told DCF that no other adults lived at the home, according to a news release.
On the night before Sharp’s death, deputies said Tubbs left the children with her boyfriend for the night and the plan was that she would return in the morning before he went to work but when she didn’t arrive on time, her boyfriend called her to let her know she needed to get home and that he would be leaving the kids with Galvin, which was not allowed.
Deputies said Tubbs had been drinking alcohol and doing narcotics that night and she didn’t return home until after Sharp was discovered in the plastic container.
Records show further investigation determined that Sharp was put in a bathtub at the home and drowned while in Galvin’s care and was ultimately discarded in the children’s room. His clothes were found soaked with water, lying on the bathroom floor next to the tub.
Only one of the children was strong enough to lift Sharp and even that would have been with great difficulty that would have caused injury to the infant, according to a news release.
Galvin and Tubbs were both arrested Friday.
Galvin is accused of aggravated manslaughter of a child and violation of probation while Tubbs is facing a neglect charge.