(WHDH) — A 20-year-old woman is facing a slew of criminal charges after authorities say she held the face of her friend’s infant daughter against a running treadmill and burned the child with a lighter.
Amber Nicole Vannatter, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, is charged with neglect of a dependent, battery resulting in serious bodily injury to a person less than 14, and battery on a person less than 14, the Muncie Star Press reported.
Vannatter had been visiting with the infant’s mother, who left her child in the suspect’s care when she went to work on the afternoon of Aug. 14, according to the news outlet.
While caring for the baby, Vannatter allegedly inflicted friction burns on the girl by holding her face and torso against a treadmill and then caused other burn marks with a cigarette lighter.
An investigator said Vannatter admitted to abusing the child because she was “depressed and the baby was crying,” the Star Press reported.
Vannatter later drove the injured child to her mother’s work and dropped her off, police said.
The baby was treated at a local emergency room and released.
Vannatter was arrested when she returned to her friend’s home and booked into the Delaware County Jail, where she is being held on $60,000 bond.
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