A 14 Year Old Mom With 8 More Kids

In the early morning hours of January 10, 2011, a dispatch operator in Jacksonville, Florida, answered a frantic 911 call. On the other end of the line, a woman desperately pleaded for help, explaining that her four-month-old daughter, Sandre, was not breathing.

The dispatcher attempted to gather crucial details, asking for the address and inquiring about the infant’s medical history. The mother revealed that the baby was born prematurely, relied on supplemental oxygen, and was supposed to be connected to an apnea monitor at all times.

Emergency personnel rushed to the scene, but their efforts came too late. Little Sandre was pronounced dead shortly after their arrival. The tragedy immediately triggered a multi-agency investigation involving local law enforcement and child welfare authorities.

The infant’s mother, Tara Carter, was no stranger to the Department of Children and Families. Her history with the agency dated back to her own childhood when she was first brought to their attention at six years old.

Growing up in a deeply troubled environment, Tara remained on the agency’s radar throughout her adolescence and adult life. She gave birth to her first child at fourteen and delivered eight more children over the subsequent twelve years.

By the time Sandre was born, the state had already permanently removed five of Tara’s older children from her care. She retained custody of only four, living in a cramped, chaotic residence with her partner, Charles Sulia.

Sandre had been born extremely premature at just twenty-four weeks gestation. She spent the first three months of her fragile life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Wolfson Children’s Hospital, fighting for survival.

Upon her discharge, medical staff issued strict, unequivocal instructions to both parents. Sandre required a continuous oxygen supply of a quarter-liter per minute alongside constant monitoring with an automated apnea device.

Nurses repeatedly warned Tara and Charles that any interruption in her oxygen therapy could prove fatal. Despite these explicit medical directives, the environment Sandre returned to was severely compromised and ill-equipped for a medically fragile infant.

The subsequent police investigation revealed a horrifying pattern of neglect inside the household. Rather than administering continuous oxygen as prescribed, Tara had made the deliberate decision to ration the infant’s supply.

Furthermore, the mandated apnea monitor—a vital safeguard designed to alert parents the moment breathing stops—was left completely unplugged and unused in a corner of the room.

When questioned by detectives, Tara admitted to withholding the lifesaving oxygen, claiming it was a mutual decision made between her and Charles. Both parents shared legal responsibility for the child’s daily care and medical management.

Investigators meticulously documented the residence, capturing evidence of extreme squalor and neglect throughout the home. Photos revealed mountains of unwashed clothing, decaying food debris, cluttered countertops, and unsanitary living spaces.

The biological father, Charles Sulia, offered little defense regarding his failure to intervene or ensure his daughter received her essential medical treatment. The state moved forward with criminal charges against both caretakers.

Tara Carter was arrested and charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child by culpable negligence. In court, the prosecution outlined the clear line between the parents’ deliberate inaction and the infant’s preventable death.

Following legal proceedings, Tara received a sentence of three years in state prison. She served her designated time and was subsequently released from custody in 2016.

Charles Sulia was prosecuted for his role in the severe medical neglect that led to Sandre’s death. He received a one-year prison sentence and was released from confinement in 2015.

Crime scene photographs from the investigation illustrated the horrific physical environment the children endured. Outside, the property was littered with abandoned vehicles, overgrown debris, rusting tools, and discarded household items.

Inside, the kitchen counters were covered with sticky residue, unwashed dishes, open condiment bottles, and rotting food, while a solitary, unused infant formula container sat amid the mess.

In the bedroom where Sandre spent her final hours, detectives located the disconnected oxygen equipment and the dark, dusty bassinet tucked away amidst piles of trash and tangled electrical cords.

The tragic end of Sandre Sulia highlighted systemic failures in monitoring high-risk households where severely vulnerable, medically fragile infants are placed in the care of chronic offenders.

Just over two years after Sandre’s tragic passing, another devastating incident of preventable child mortality occurred in Miami-Dade County. In May 2013, police officers responded to an urgent distress call at a residence on 150th Place.

Upon arrival, officers met thirty-seven-year-old Catalina Bruno, who directed them to a playpen inside the home. Lying motionless inside was her eleven-month-old son, Brian Oelio.

The infant was completely unresponsive, and his lips had already turned a deep shade of purple. Paramedics rushed the child to a nearby hospital, but medical staff were unable to revive him.

When initial responding officers questioned Catalina about what had transpired prior to the emergency call, she claimed she had no idea how her son ended up in that condition.

She told investigators that she and her husband, Amos, had been sleeping deeply and simply woke up to find the baby unresponsive in his playpen. However, detectives quickly uncovered a far more sinister narrative.

A review of the family’s history revealed that child welfare authorities had been intimately involved with Catalina just six months prior to Brian’s death.

In late 2012, police arrested Catalina after she crashed her vehicle into multiple structure walls while driving severely intoxicated. When officers approached the idling vehicle, they found her passed out behind the wheel with baby Brian sitting in her lap.

She was charged with driving under the influence and child endangerment, triggering an immediate referral to local child welfare officials for emergency intervention.

State caseworkers conducted an assessment and classified Brian and his siblings as being at high risk of harm due to their mother’s severe alcohol abuse.

Despite this explicit classification, the agency inexplicably opted against mandating intensive substance abuse treatment or placing Catalina under strict court supervision.

An investigator formally concluded that Catalina posed no immediate physical threat to her children, allowing the infant to remain in her direct custody without mandatory rehabilitation programs.

Subsequent reports indicated that police were called to the family home on additional occasions for domestic violence incidents involving Catalina and her husband.

During one specific response, officers found Catalina heavily intoxicated while Amos was arrested for physically assaulting her in the presence of their young children.

Despite the recurring law enforcement interventions and chronic alcohol abuse, Catalina never completed a single court-ordered rehabilitation program or parenting class prior to the fatal incident.

On the day of Brian’s death, Catalina had consumed massive quantities of alcohol before driving home with the infant secured in the back seat of her Chevy Impala.

Upon arriving at her house, she stumbled inside in a heavy stupor, completely forgetting that her eleven-month-old son was still buckled into his car seat in the enclosed vehicle.

Catalina collapsed onto her bed and slept for hours while the tropical Florida heat steadily built up inside the sealed automobile parked in the driveway.

Outside, ambient temperatures soared, causing the internal atmosphere of the closed sedan to spike well past one hundred and nine degrees Fahrenheit within an hour.

It was only when her husband woke up hours later and asked where the baby was that Catalina realized her catastrophic oversight.

Amos sprinted outside to the driveway, yanked open the car door, and pulled the burning, unconscious body of his infant son from the backseat.

Instead of immediately dialing emergency services from the driveway, the parents carried the unresponsive boy inside, placed him in his playpen, and attempted to stage the scene before calling 911.

Medical examiners confirmed that little Brian died from severe hyperthermia, suffering prolonged organ failure brought on by extreme environmental heat exposure.

Catalina was taken into custody and formally charged in connection with her son’s painful, preventable death. mugshots captured her distraught, disheveled state as she sobered up in jail.

A search warrant executed at the Miami residence revealed a stark contrast between the physical structure of the comfortable suburban home and the hidden neglect occurring within its walls.

While the spacious multi-bedroom house featured modern amenities and heavy furnishings, individual rooms were littered with empty alcohol containers, open prescription bottles, and uncollected trash.

Detectives documented numerous empty beer cans, liquor bottles, and wine glasses scattered across living room tables, kitchen counters, and bedroom nightstands.

In the master bedroom, investigators found court summons documents and pending legal notices resting alongside religious items and dynamic family portraits.

Catalina Bruno ultimately entered a plea agreement and was sentenced to just two years in state prison for the reckless neglect that killed her son.

Due to credit for time served and standard sentence reductions, she was released back into the community in 2014, serving a fraction of her original term.

While the cases in Jacksonville and Miami highlighted maternal neglect, a early morning call in Gainesville, Florida, revealed a different manifestation of fatal domestic carelessness.

On January 10, 2011, emergency services received an urgent request for medical assistance at a quiet residential home on the city’s east side.

First responders arrived to find an eighteen-month-old toddler, Ashton Enclard, unconscious on the floor while adult occupants performed desperate, uncoordinated CPR.

Paramedics immediately took over resuscitation efforts and rushed the child to Shands Hospital at the University of Florida in critical condition.

The person who claimed to have discovered the unresponsive child was his twenty-three-year-old father, Anthony Scott Enclard, a local nightclub bouncer weighing two hundred and seventy-five pounds.

Anthony told responding officers that he had put his young son to sleep at approximately eleven o’clock the previous evening without incident.

He claimed that upon waking up the following morning, he checked on Ashton and discovered the child was not breathing and lacked a detectable pulse.

At the time of the incident, Anthony and his son were temporarily residing at the home of a female acquaintance, Alexis Carlson, having been evicted from his previous residence.

When emergency room physicians at Shands Hospital evaluated Ashton, they immediately identified multiple unexplained physical injuries across the toddler’s body.

The medical team noted small red spots, known as petechiae, scattered across his neck, face, and forehead—a classic indicator of mechanical asphyxiation.

They also documented fresh abrasions on his lip, a laceration on his tongue, a dark contusion above his left eye, and a distinct deep red pressure mark wrapped around his neck.

Specialized pediatric medical staff concluded that the physical evidence strongly pointed to severe oxygen deprivation caused by external suffocation or compression.

Despite advanced life-support measures, Ashton suffered catastrophic brain swelling and rapid multi-organ failure over the next forty-eight hours.

Neurological testing confirmed a complete absence of brain activity, and on January 12, 2011, the toddler was formally removed from life support and pronounced dead.

Detectives from the Gainesville Police Department launched a criminal investigation into the father’s background, quickly uncovering a prior record of child endangerment.

Years earlier, while living in South Carolina, Anthony had been convicted of felony child neglect after failing to seek medical treatment for another infant who suffered multiple bone fractures.

In that previous case, he received a sentence of five years’ probation rather than serving significant time in state custody.

As detectives pressed Anthony on the physical inconsistencies found on Ashton’s body, his original story began to unravel under scrutiny.

He eventually abandoned his claim of finding the boy alone in a crib and admitted to co-sleeping with the toddler on a narrow mattress.

Anthony acknowledged that despite being fully aware of the severe dangers associated with co-sleeping—particularly given his large physical frame—he fell asleep directly beside the infant.

He confessed that upon waking up, he discovered his entire body positioned over the toddler, with his heavy forearm pressed firmly down onto Ashton’s chest and neck area.

When he finally shifted his weight off the trapped child, Ashton let out one final, faint gasp of air before going entirely motionless.

Crucially, cell phone records subpoenaed by detectives revealed a deliberate, fatal delay between the discovery of the child and the call to emergency services.

Rather than calling 911 immediately upon finding his son unresponsive, Anthony spent nearly an hour making routine personal phone calls and sending text messages.

His digital logs showed he was actively texting his girlfriend about his gym routine and workout schedules while his toddler lay dying beside him.

Medical experts later testified that the extended delay in seeking emergency care directly deprived the child of any chance of survival or neurological recovery.

On January 26, 2011, law enforcement officers arrested Anthony Scott Enclard and charged him with felony manslaughter in connection with Ashton’s death.

Investigators processed the Gainesville residence, capturing detailed photographs of the temporary sleeping quarters Anthony shared with his son.

The scene showed a small, cluttered bedroom filled with fitness gear, boxing gloves, video game consoles, and discarded personal electronics.

Underneath the bed frame, crime scene technicians recovered the exact Blackberry device Anthony used to text his friends during the hour he delayed calling for emergency help.

In the adjacent living spaces, evidence technicians documented infant items scattered among adult belongings, including sippy cups, children’s analgesics, and half-eaten food containers.

The autopsy formally confirmed that Ashton Enclard died from mechanical asphyxia caused by external chest and neck compression, coupled with severe medical delay.

Together, the lives of Sandre, Brian, and Ashton represent profound domestic tragedies, illustrating how persistent adult negligence, substance abuse, and delayed care can destroy the most vulnerable.