Police arrested 19-year-old Hialeah resident Bryunna Joyce after her ex-boyfriend sent Joyce suffocating videos and repeatedly slapped her 5-week-old daughter to a Florida Department of Children of Families caseworker. Officers imposed felony charges such as child abuse, child neglect, and domestic strangulation on Joyce on Monday.
What We Know:
- Joyce began abusing her daughter after an argument with her baby’s father. She sent him multiple disturbing videos and falsely claimed the baby already died. Alongside the recordings, she sent him several messages; in some of them, she said, “I’m just act like its a accident“ and “f*** this baby.”
- The videos show Joyce slapping the baby four times, throwing the infant off the bed, strangling the girl with her hands, and then with a blanket, rocking the car seat back and forth, and hitting the victim’s head with the bottom of the car seat five times.
- After seeing the videos, the caseworker went to find Joyce at her home on the 2400 block of West Sixth Court. When she didn’t find Joyce at home, she filed missing person reports with the Hialeah police for the newborn and Joyce’s one-year-old child. Police proceeded to conduct an urgent search for the children on Sunday.
- Detectives from Hialeah’s Special Victims, Homicide, and Special Investigations Units discovered Joyce and her children at a Liberty City apartment. Since the abuse occurred in the Miami municipality, Miami Police Department officers took her in and charged her.
- On Monday morning, Joyce appeared in the Miami-Dade County bond court. Currently, she remains jailed but will be placed on house arrest if she posts a bond. Although officials assigned her a public defender, the Miami Herald could not reach them for further comments.
As of late, the newborn is safe and under observation at a hospital. Alongside this, her one-year-old is being taken care of by a relative.
