{"id":354249,"date":"2026-07-27T22:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T22:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/354249\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T22:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T22:35:08","slug":"investigators-reveal-horrific-home-conditions-in-fort-pierce-baby-death-case-arrests-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/354249\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigators reveal horrific home conditions in Fort Pierce baby death case; arrests made"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 The St. Lucie County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/a> is sharing new details about the investigation into the death of a three-month-old boy in Fort Pierce, including why it took nearly a year to make arrests and the conditions investigators say they found inside the mobile home where the child lived.<\/p>\n

The infant\u2019s mother, Nicole Maxwell, her father Robert Maxwell, and his girlfriend Vikki Koon were arrested and charged with aggravated manslaughter and child abuse.<\/p>\n

Investigators say the baby died from dehydration and malnutrition last August, and the medical examiner later ruled the death a homicide. Detectives say the case was complex, requiring outside expertise and months of additional testing before they could move forward with charges.<\/p>\n

“It takes an extended amount of resources, and due to the medical examiner, who did great job in this investigation, they had to seek out outside experts to provide an examination for the child and based on results, they could take several weeks even months,” said Detective Jennifer Diaz with the St. Lucie County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

See also: ICE-held Lake Worth bakery owner faces up to 10 years in prison on illegal reentry charge<\/a><\/p>\n

A neighbor, Suzan, who lives across the street from the home, says she had concerns about the children\u2019s living conditions and believes the arrests are long overdue.<\/p>\n

Suzan said two of the boys would knock on her door and she would give them food and something to drink.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids were so hungry and starving,” Suzan said.<\/p>\n

Suzan said sheets of plywood covered holes in the mobile home’s floor.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been inside the house and it was unlivable,” she said. “The boards that’s out there now, are the boards that was on the floor.”<\/p>\n

Detective Jennifer Diaz was one of the investigators who worked on the case. She described the horrific conditions inside the mobile home.<\/p>\n

“The house was extremely hot,” she said. “There was a bug infestation in the home, lack of food in the home, and the home was unsafe for walking.”<\/p>\n

Investigators say Maxwell\u2019s four other children also needed medical attention at the time and are now in foster care.<\/p>\n

The sheriff\u2019s office says child protective services had previously been called to the home and is reminding the public to report any suspected child abuse or neglect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 The St. Lucie County Sheriff\u2019s Office is sharing new details about the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-354249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}