MIDDLETOWN, Ohio: Funerals services have been set for a 4-year-old Ohio boy who was found dead a day after authorities say his stepmother put his legs in scalding water as a punishment.
Services for Austin Cooper, of Franklin, are scheduled Tuesday at Herr-Riggs Funeral Home in Middletown.
Warren County’s coroner ruled Austin’s death a homicide.
The child’s stepmother, 25-year-old Anna Ritchie, is charged with child endangering. A judge on Friday entered a not guilty plea for Ritchie. Her attorney declined to comment.
Police say the boy’s father told a 911 dispatcher the child got into a hot bath March 15, then went to bed and was found unresponsive the next day in Franklin, roughly 35 miles north of Cincinnati.
Ritchie is being held on $350,000 bond.