FITCHBURG, Mass. — A man and a woman have been arrested in connection with the suspicious death of a 6-year-old girl after she was found unresponsive in her Fitchburg home Tuesday morning.
Boston 25 News learned the girl's mother and father have been arrested. The attorney for the mother says a different attorney will be representing the father.
Shana Pedroso is being charged with two counts of reckless endangerment of a child and assault and battery on a child.
MORE: 'Children were bad and beaten': 9-year-old tells tale of abuse in court docs
Marvin Brito, the father, is facing two charges of permitting substantial injury to a child and reckless endangerment.
Police were called to 139 Stoneybrook Rd. just before noon Tuesday. When officers arrived they found an injured 9-year-old boy, and an unresponsive 6-year-old girl, Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early said during a news conference.
MORE: Suspicious death of 6-year-old girl under investigation in Fitchburg
One neighbor said he knew everyone who lived around him, except this family.
“They are rarely outside, they’ve been here maybe two or three years. I think I’ve seen them twice,” the neighbor, who went by Jason, said.
The children, who are siblings, were taken to a hospital where the little girl - Sophia Brito - was pronounced dead. The boy was taken to Worcester Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and is expected to recover.
“It’s a terrible thing to happen,” neighbor Doug Robertson said.
Early labeled the death as suspicious, and the case remains under investigation.
The neighborhood was locked down for hours as police searched the area for possible clues into what took place.
“There were ambulances and we counted 12 police cars,” neighbor Jim Harper said. “The undercover cops, the state police and the K9s. And about a half hour after that, there were helicopters.”
Shortly after the children were found, officers took a woman into custody a few streets away. Sky25 was over the scene when that occurred.
Neighbors said they saw a man in a white pick-up truck being questioned, and then the truck was towed to the police station. They said the family moved into the home about a year ago, and were fairly new to the area.
“They seemed like a good family,” neighbor Doug Munroe said. “I’ve only met them once, but there were never any issues. They just seemed like everyone else.”
The Department of Children and Families said the boy and girl were the only children inside the home.
The boy is now in DCF custody.
"The Department of Children and Families continues to assist law enforcement in the active investigation of this tragedy," said a DCF spokesperson.
DCF says the family had never been reporter to the department.
“Especially when there’s a child involved, it’s really bad.” Neighbor Jim Harper said. “You never know what’s going to happen.”
Fitchburg Public Schools tells Boston 25 News anchor Kerry Kavanaugh that the children were enrolled as home schooled in the fall of 2017. Prior to that, they say they have no record of the children.
Kavanaugh spoke with a victim advocate who says their homeschooling raises the question of who was watching these children to protect them?
"Lots of kids are homeschooled and there are no problems. But, it does keep kids away from their communities, especially their schools where their friends and their teachers community leaders, police even, might have access to them and might be able to say is something going on a home that you're worried about, are you having trouble at home," said Wendy Murphy.
Kavanaugh reached out to the Massachusetts Home Learning Association, which is a homeschooling advocacy group. A spokesperson said the incident was tragic, but he believes it to be an isolated incident as it relates to homeschooling. He added that Mass. is one of the most regulated homeschool states because parents need the approval of the superintendent in the district.
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