A 31-year-old US man has been charged with suffocating his two-year-old daughter to death for distracting him from his computer games, a media report said.
Anthony Michael Sanders was charged with capital murder in the December death of Ellie Sanders at the family’s suburban home in the US state of Texas, Watauga police said.
He is accused of suffocating his daughter while caring for her and his five-year-old son.
Investigators believe an enraged Sanders bruised Ellie all over her body, bit her on her back and murdered her by holding her down with his hand over her face, police officials said.
“He was very involved in computer gaming... That is something he did constantly. She may have interrupted him somehow. His day may have been interrupted,” police officer Babcock was quoted as saying by the Star-Telegram newspaper.
Tarrant County medical examiners ruled earlier this month that the infant’s death was a homicide by asphyxiation.
Sanders was asked to take care of Ellie and his son while his wife went to an art show, according to an arrest affidavit cited by the newspaper.
The boy discovered his sister in a bedroom and “tried to wake her up and she would not wake up”, Babcock said.
Detectives suspected foul play as doctors found fresh injuries when they examined the infant. They found bruises around her eyes, blood behind her ear and two adult bite marks on her back, according to the affidavit.
Sanders could not explain her injuries and claimed he had changed Ellie’s diaper about a half hour before his wife came home, according to investigators.