FITCHBURG — A mother was charged with assault and battery Wednesday after her 6-year-old daughter was found unresponsive and with bruises all over her body. The girl was later pronounced dead at an area hospital.
Police said they found a handwritten note on the woman indicating that the girl and her 9-year-old brother “were bad and beaten.’’
The disturbing details emerged as Shana Pedroso appeared in Fitchburg District Court, where she pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault and battery on a child causing injury and two counts of reckless endangerment of a child. She was ordered held without bail.
The 9-year-old boy told authorities that Pedroso became angry Tuesday morning when the girl wouldn’t take a drink “and that his mother was mad.’’ “He said that his mother contacted [the boy’s] father on the telephone and that both of them said not to call 911.’’
The boy also said his mother had closed a wound on his neck with super glue. The boy had sustained “serious injuries and bruising to his face,’’ according to the police report.
The state Department of Children and Families has taken custody of the boy, and said Pedroso’s family had never been reported to the agency prior to Tuesday. A spokeswoman for DCF said the agency “continues to assist law enforcement in the active investigation of this tragedy.’’
Pedroso’s husband, Marvin Brito, 38, was also arrested and arraigned in the same courthouse Wednesday on two counts each of permitting substantial injury to a child and reckless endangerment of a child, legal filings show.
He, too, pleaded not guilty and was held without bail.
A man who was formerly related to Brito by marriage said he was shocked to learn of the arrests. He declined to be named and said he hadn’t spoken to the couple in years.
“Marvin Brito comes from really good parents,’’ the man said, noting that Brito worked for a concrete pouring company.
According to a Fitchburg police report, when investigators searched Pedroso after she was arrested, they discovered a handwritten note dated April 9, “which indicated that the children were bad and beaten.’’
The report said police were in the house when the boy was being given medical help by first responders.
The boy told first responders that he was injured Monday while “out on a walk with his sister, two unnamed children and their parents . . . He reported that his parents left them and that he and his sister were attacked by bullies.’’
According to the Fitchburg school superintendent’s office, the couple notified the school last September that they were going to home-school their two children. The school department had no other contact with the children and their parents, an aide to the school superintendent said.
Police arrived at the couple’s home just before noon Tuesday. City assessing records show that Pedroso and Brito bought the property in November 2015.
On Wednesday, neighbors on the quiet residential street of newer homes and green lawns said the neighborhood is full of young children who play outside, and friendly neighbors who enjoy socializing with one another.
But Pedroso and Brito were different. “They were never really outside,’’ said neighbor Joyel Pelletier, 37, adding that their vehicles were always parked in the driveway but she rarely saw the couple. “They stayed to themselves. . . . I didn’t even know there were kids in that house.’’
Pelletier said she was shocked to learn of the girl’s death, calling the news “heart-wrenching.’’
Fitchburg police and State Police remained at the crime scene Wednesday, and the area around the home was sealed off with yellow tape and barricades.
Both Brito and Pedroso are due back in court for dangerousness hearings on April 18.
Danny McDonald of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @emilysweeney. Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @TAGlobe.
