A couple who have been charged with involuntary manslaughter after waiting three days to notify police about the death of their infant son say they neglected to call authorities because they were fearful of modern medicine.
Drew and Amy Hoenigke were also charged with aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, and endangering the welfare of children by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office on 19 December in connection with the death of their son Mahko in January.
In a statement, authorities said the couple had refused to seek help after their son showed signs of severe distress, struggled to breathe and began “turning blue” soon his birth at the family’s home in Cherry Township, Sullivan County, on 15 January.
Family friend Brigitte Meckes, 47, who has reportedly acknowledged attending Mahko’s birth and trying to save his life, was also charged with the same offences.
“In a failed attempt to aid the child, Amy Hoenigke and Meckes utilised a peppermint oil infuser and attempted to create a makeshift breathing tube from a water bottle,” the Pennsylvania Attorney-General’s Office said in a statement.
“Without proper medical care, the baby died approximately two days after birth.”
Pennsylvania State Troopers found the boy’s decomposing body in a wooden bassinet next to a container with “remnants of burned herbs” when they attended the home on 20 January.
The couple were booked on $150,000 bail and have since been released as they await a pre-trial court appearance in January.
In an interview with The Daily Beast, Mr Hoenigke, 31, said the couple decided against calling police immediately out of an apparent fear of modern medicine and concern for their unvaccinated two-year-old daughter Hettis.
“We didn’t want to try to hide what happened and we knew we had to go through the process,” Mr Hoenigke told The Daily Beast.
“But we were worried about our daughter and what would happen to her.”
He said the two-year-old had also been home birthed, had not received any vaccinations and did not even have a birth certificate.
The Hoenigkes had reportedly moved to the sparsely populated Sullivan County in northeastern Pennsylvania to pursue a “primitive lifestyle” according to an arrest affidavit.
Amy Hoenigke, 34, told investigators that the couple “do not live a conventional lifestyle and choose not to pay attention to things like time frames or even keep track of the days.”
“They made the decision to live a primitive lifestyle and raise their children in the same manner,” the charging document states.
Police say Amy Hoenigke texted a friend on 17 January to say that her son wasn’t breathing.
“Something was stuck in his lungs and he kept going blue,” she wrote in the text. “We could get him back but after hours and hours of fighting his heart finally gave.”
Ms Hoenigke told police that she didn’t summon help out of concern that authorities would discover her undocumented daughter.
The police affidavit further alleges that the couple had agreed to lie about Mahko’s death by claiming he had died suddenly.
She later admitted during an interview that his death was a “prolonged event”.
Authorities said that the couple had used a laptop and mobile phone to search online for how to treat an infant experiencing breathing problems.
Ms Meckes was called to assist with the home birth and had some medical training, but did not hold a license to practice medicine, authorities said.
In a statement, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said: “These individuals neglected their responsibilities to care for an innocent child. By failing to get him appropriate medical care, this baby needlessly suffered and died. Terrible tragedies like these can be prevented.”
