Crime & Safety

Ex-Foster Parent in St. Charles County Charged with Child Abuse

Child suffered multiple broken bones, skull fracture and brain injuries as an infant in 2009.

A former St. Charles County foster parent has been charged with two counts each of child abuse and assault.

A statement from the St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney’s office reads that Terri Cronin, 48, of unincorporated St. Charles County, “knowingly inflicted cruel and inhuman punishment” on a child who was six weeks and 11 weeks old at the time.

A court document reads that on April 12, 2009, Cronin caused a spiral fracture to Shakur Casanova Knight’s arm. He was six weeks old at the time.

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Cronin told police the injury occurred when she slipped while carrying the baby down some steps in her home in the 3600 block of Meadowsglen Court in the Harvester area.

A St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department statement indicated the injury is incompatible with falling down steps, but is “highly specific for inflicted injuries” to an infant.

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Then, on May 27, 2009, Cronin told she slipped down the same steps again, dropping 11-week-old Shakur.

The child suffers a depressed skull fracture, severe brain swelling, multiple subdural hemorrhages, a brain contusion, seizures as a result of the brain injury, retinal hemorrhages, a collarbone fracture. A complete skeletal X-ray revealed the infant also had a broken tibia above his ankle and broken bones in his left wrist.

The charges followed an investigation by the St. Louis Post Dispatch highlighting the child’s injuries and showing how private agency case managers failed to follow state protocol to ensure the child’s safety in foster care.


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