A 21-year-old woman from Boca Raton, Florida, Bianca DeSouza, has been arrested and charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child and child neglect resulting in significant bodily harm. The charges stem from an incident in May of the previous year, where DeSouza allegedly gave birth alone at home and failed to provide necessary care for the newborn, leading to his suffocation.
According to court documents, DeSouza admitted to leaving the newborn trapped between her legs and her boxer shorts, with only his head visible. She reportedly spent time browsing social media on her phone before checking on the infant. The unresponsive baby was later discovered by DeSouza’s mother on a bed while DeSouza, then 19, was in the shower.
Emergency services were called to the scene, with the mother’s distressed exclamations heard in the background of the 911 call. Despite efforts by Palm Beach sheriff’s deputies and fire crews, who administered CPR and epinephrine to the still-warm newborn before rushing him to a hospital, the baby was declared dead.
Court documents reveal that DeSouza had been diagnosed with bipolar schizophrenia and had admitted to regular substance use throughout her pregnancy. This included daily marijuana and vaping, as well as the use of Xanax, oxycodone, and Hennessy cognac. DeSouza’s mother informed officials that her daughter had initially considered terminating the pregnancy but later decided to put the baby up for adoption.
In her statement to investigators, DeSouza expressed confusion about the events surrounding the birth. She described wearing shorts that she had pulled to the side during the birth, with a pathologist suggesting that a line found on the baby’s neck indicates he was trapped between DeSouza’s thigh and her shorts. DeSouza also admitted that the newborn remained in her boxers for approximately ten minutes and stopped crying with his head poking out of the shorts.
The documents further reveal that after the baby’s death, DeSouza laid next to him for a while before getting up to take a shower. The medical examiner determined the cause of death to be asphyxia and classified the manner of death as homicide. DeSouza was subsequently charged and booked into jail, later being released on a $25,000 bond.