Mom heard ‘bloodcurdling scream’ as dad broke 5-year-old’s leg, Missouri cops say

A 5-year-old girl with “extensive bruising to her back, buttocks and legs” needed surgery after Missouri police say her dad broke her right leg, the Joplin Globe reported.

The girl’s mom heard the abuse from another room, Carthage police said in a press release obtained by KZRG. First, she heard a loud “thud” coming from her daughter’s bedroom — and then she heard a “bloodcurdling scream” from the 5-year-old, the Globe reported.

The child abuse was reported Jan. 12, KZRG reported.

Mystic Foresee ran to her child’s room and saw the girl “on the floor in front of the dresser holding her oddly bent right leg in the air,” the Joplin Globe reported off of a police affidavit.

Foresee told detectives that the 5-year-old’s dad had grabbed the girl by her arm and threw her into her dresser, KSNF reported.

The dad — Lance Breeding, 27 — admitted to investigators that he spanked his daughter as punishment, police said in a press release obtained by KZRG.

Then, when the girl didn’t clean her room, he told police that he pushed her into her room — and the girl hit the dresser, KSNF reported.

“He picked her up because she said her leg hurt and checked her leg without finding anything wrong,” police said in the press release published by KZRG. “He sat her back down on the floor. She wouldn’t get back up so he kicked her leg telling her to get up.”

That’s when the girl screamed, he told police, according to the Joplin Globe.

Their daughter’s right femur was broken, and she was taken from a Carthage hospital to one in Springfield for surgery, KZRG reported. That’s about 60 miles away.

Breeding was booked into the Jasper County Jail on a $50,000 cash bond and charged with child abuse, KSNF reported.

This story was originally published January 16, 2019 at 10:09 AM.