PITTSBURGH — A dad is behind bars and a warrant is out for his girlfriend’s arrest in a horrific case of child abuse. Police say Darryl Pace and his girlfriend, Joanna Moore, are accused of beating and scalding Pace’s 3-year-old daughter.
Police say the abuse happened inside the couple’s Brackenridge Street home, in the Terrace Village neighborhood. Police say the girl was taken to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh by someone extremely concerned for her well-being. Police did not name that person.
According to court paperwork, doctors told police the little girl had too many marks on her body to count. Doctors say the little girl had severe burns to both feet and her private parts and her body was covered with bruises and marks.
Police say Darryl Pace came to Children’s Hospital. According to court documents, he was “unable to explain the burns” and said the “other marks were from his daughter falling down the stairs.”
A doctor who saw the toddler at the hospital said this was abuse, adding, “she is at grave risk for continued even more serious injury, including death,” if she returns to the same home environment.
Court paperwork says the 3-year-old told child psychologists that her dad’s girlfriend, Joanna Moore — whom she called mom — “burned me in the shower ... because I pooped myself twice.”
The girl says she was hit with a belt, shoe and cord and that her father had wiped blood off her face with a washcloth after she was hit.
The 3-year-old girl is now safe in someone else’s care.
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