RICHLAND COUNTY, S.C. — A Richland County father and mother have been arrested and charged with homicide by child abuse after their four-year-old daughter died in a hospital days after she was brought in unresponsive with serious injuries.
The Richland County Sheriff's Department said investigators were contacted by Prisma Health Children's Hospital on Feb. 16 when an unresponsive child, identified as Hope Fields, was brought in by emergency medical services personnel with burns and a fractured femur.
The sheriff's department said she suffered three cardiac arrests on the way to the hospital and was placed on life support for two days but died.
"Ironically, her name - it was Hope," Sheriff Leon Lott said. "She had absolutely no hope to survive with the parents that she had."
Investigators said the child's father, Wilbur Fields, allegedly admitted to submerging the child in scalding water because she soiled her pants. The sheriff's department said the child's mother, 32-year-old Fifi Hill-Fields, admitted to being present and aware of what the father did.
"There's a difference between disciplining a child and abusing a child," Lott said.
Both parents were arrested and charged with homicide by child abuse and two counts of neglect. They're being housed at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center. Three other children in the home between the ages of five months old and 10 years old have been placed in emergency protective custody.
"If you don't think these cases emotionally touch people, then, then you're wrong," Lott said. "Everybody from the EMS to the hospital, to our people - when you see a case like this it, it has an impact on you and it's something that that you'll never forget."