Parents charged in toddler's car seat strangulation death
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Main, left to right: Kirsten Schmitt and Anthony Pedigo (Whitfield Co. Sheriff’s Office). Inset: Grayson Pedigo (GoFundMe).

A 26-year-old mother and a 30-year-old father in Georgia have been arrested in connection with the death of their 22-month-old son after authorities say they left him alone watching television while he was strapped in a car seat that apparently strangled the toddler to death. Kirsten Schmitt and Anthony Pedigo were taken into custody on Monday and each charged with one count of second-degree murder and one count of second-degree cruelty to children in the death of young Grayson Pedigo, authorities announced.

According to a news release from the Dalton Police Department, officers and emergency medical personnel responded to the parents’ home in the 2800 block of Gregory Place at about 4 p.m. on June 5, regarding a medical emergency. The parents placed the 911 call and told the emergency dispatcher that their 22-month-old was “unresponsive in his car seat.”

Upon arriving at the scene, first responders located the boy and immediately transported him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead

In an interview with police, Schmitt and Pedigo allegedly said it was “typical for them to seat belt their son into his car seat and leave him on the floor of the living room to watch TV while they were home.”

“Schmitt told investigators that on June 5th, she was watching TV with Grayson while Pedigo was sleeping in the bedroom,” the release states. “Schmitt told investigators that she went into the bedroom to wake Pedigo up for his shift at work, leaving Grayson alone. Both Schmitt and Pedigo say that they were in the bedroom for approximately 30 to 40 minutes.”

The parents said that when they returned to where they had left their son watching TV, they found him unresponsive.

Police said the child’s injuries were “consistent with having the seat belt and buckle around his neck.”

Specifically, police said there was “bruising” and “other marks around the neck that indicated that the child had been strangled by those restraints,” according to a report from Columbus, Georgia, ABC affiliate WTVC.

When questioned about the fact that an arrest was not made in the case for more than three months, Bruce Fazier, the communications director for the City of Dalton, told WTVC that the investigation had been ongoing.

“The police department’s been in consultation with our district attorney’s office throughout the entire process, and last week, specifically on Friday, they obtained warrants for the arrest of these parents,” he told the station. “It’s a sad case, and obviously the goal is to for there to be justice done for the child.”

A GoFundMe page created by the victim’s grandmother —which was taken down after the couple’s arrest — said that Anthony Pedigo had been working two jobs so that his wife could stay home to care for their elder son, who lives with spina bifida and is paralyzed from the waist down, The Georgia Gazette reported.

Anthony Pedigo and Schmitt are currently being held in the Whitfield County Jail without bond, records show. It was not immediately clear when the duo was scheduled to appear in court.

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