Tragedy as blind disabled girl, 3, is found dead weighing just 11lbs in house 'filled with fleas, rodents and trash after she was starved by her parents'

Nathalyz Rivera found unresponsive at her parents' Philadelphia home late on Monday and she was pronounced dead at hospital

She weighed the same as a 3-month-old and was covered in flea bites



Parents Carlos Rivera, 30, and Carmen Ramirez, 27, accused of murder

Home 'was filled with fleas, rodents and insects and piled with trash'



A disabled three-year-old girl has been found dead at her parents' filthy home weighing just 11 pounds after they allegedly starved her to death.

Little Nathalyz Rivera was not breathing when her father, Carlos Rivera, 30, returned to their home in Philadelphia around midnight on Monday.

Instead of calling authorities, he rushed the little girl - who has four other siblings, including a twin - to his mother, 27-year-old Carmen Ramirez, who was at a male friend's house.

She took her daughter to Albert Einstein Medical Center where she was pronounced dead at approximately 1.50am. The medical examiner ruled her death a homicide through starvation.

Tragic: Three-year-old Nathalyz Rivera, pictured left and right, has died after allegedly being starved by her parents until she weighed just 11 pounds. Her mother said she was blind and suffered Down syndrome



Ramirez told police her daughter was blind and had Down syndrome, and the girl's tiny body showed bites apparently from fleas that were found inside the filthy home on Sommers Road.

Investigators found the house filled with so much trash that they were unable to climb the stairs and had to take photographs of the scene through windows.

They also found rodents and insects inside the home. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that medical staff saw a roach crawl across Nathalyz's body when she was taken to hospital.

Homicide Capt. James Clark said Nathalyz, who weighed the same as an average three-month-old baby, showed 'obvious signs of neglect' and 'had not seen a doctor in over a year, even with all the severe disabilities'. He did not detail her specific health problems.

'This is one of the worst cases of abuse that I've seen in my five years at the homicide unit,' Clark told the Associated Press. 'I saw the photos, and even for me, they were difficult to look at.'

Arrests: Her father Carlos Rivera, left, and mother Carmen Ramirez, right, have been charged with homicide

Parents: Rivera, left, was allegedly left with the children as Ramirez, right, would come and go from the house Her condition suggested she had ' starved like people in concentration camps starved', Cindy Christian, medical director for the Department of Human Services, told the Inquirer.

Ramirez, who is married to Rivera but apparently comes and goes from the house, was arrested at the hospital. Rivera left the other children with a relative and fled but was later captured.

The family had one previous contact with DHS, police said without providing further details. Sources told the Inquirer a complaint was made against the family in 2008, before Nathalyz was born. Her twin, a boy, and three other siblings - aged seven, eight and nine - are now in protective custody. They were checked at a hospital before being placed with DHS.

Neighbors called the siblings 'beautiful' but said they rarely saw Nathalyz. One speculated that the couple had become overwhelmed caring for their many children.

Squalid: A police car sits outside the family's home, which officers said was crawling with insects and rodents

Hidden horrors: A Disney characters curtain is seen at the window of the home where the girl was found