A 25-year-old woman from Florida has been taken into custody regarding the tragic death of her 5-year-old stepson, who reportedly drowned in a manmade ditch contaminated with waste. On Tuesday, Cheyenne Star Fite was arrested and faces a charge of aggravated manslaughter due to child abuse, according to court records.
On October 11, 2024, at approximately 5:30 p.m., deputies from the Osceola Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to a residence located in the 5800 block of North Kenansville Road in Kissimmee following reports of a drowning incident. Upon arrival, first responders found a 5-year-old boy who was “unresponsive, naked, and covered in mud.”
A child was taken by paramedics to HCA Florida Osceola East Emergency, where he was declared dead at 6:17 p.m. due to drowning.
During an interview with authorities, Fite reportedly stated that she was supervising the child along with his two siblings, aged 3 and 5, and permitted the boys to play freely in the yard due to the lack of electricity on the property at that moment. She mentioned that there were multiple shallow puddles in the yard from the rain brought by Hurricane Helene, and the children were having fun playing in the mud.
Fite mentioned that a family friend had visited earlier in the day and “excavated a substantial hole to facilitate water drainage on the property.” According to police, the hole was approximately 15 feet long, 10 feet wide, and 7 feet deep. It was situated adjacent to a pigpen and contained what seemed to be runoff water from the pig pen.
Eventually, Fite noticed the absence of the 5-year-old boy and discovered he was submerged in the murky water of a manmade hole, prompting her to leap in and rescue him. Fite stated that the boy was unable to swim and declined to give the police her phone number, asserting that her cellphone was “in the hole.” In a moment of distress, Fite called out for help when she couldn’t reach emergency services, prompting her mother to come to her aid.
The father of the boy informed authorities that he was on duty during the incident and indicated that Fite was in charge of supervising his son.
Fite reportedly stated that the hole was “a few feet away” from her location while she was folding clothes and that she could “hear the children if she turned around.” Authorities indicated that the gap between the hole and the trailer was roughly equivalent to a football field, suggesting that her line of sight would have been blocked, rendering it “unlikely” she could have offered “adequate supervision of the children at that moment.”
Upon investigating the site of the boy’s drowning, authorities reported detecting a smell from the water that resembled fecal matter and urine.
A sibling of the victim informed authorities that Fite had left her brother “outside naked as a form of punishment for hurting a chicken earlier that day,” according to the affidavit. The young girl recounted that during her brother’s struggle in the water, Fite was peacefully resting in bed.
Fite remains in custody at the Osceola County Jail with no bond and is set to appear in court on Thursday.