A recent child abuse case in Pasco County has a connection to one of the Bay area's most infamous child abuse cases, one that sent the abuser to prison for life.

  • Kimberly Bedwell, arrested in January, is sister of Jasmine Bedwell
  • Jasmine Bedwell's infant son thrown from moving car by then-boyfriend Richard McTear in 2009
  • Kimberly Bedwell's 3-year-old daughter still recovering

The three-year-old daughter of Kimberly Bedwell is still recovering in the hospital after her mother’s boyfriend, Eric Sanders, allegedly beat her for wetting herself.

Sanders and Bedwell were originally arrested in January when doctors learned the girl was severely malnourished.  Deputies arrested Sanders again after it was discovered the girl had several bruises and a brain bleed.

The case has a tie to one of Tampa’s most notorious child abuse cases. Kimberly Bedwell is Jasmine Bedwell’s sister.

Jasmine Bedwell's three-month-old son, Emmanuel Murray Jr., was thrown from a moving car onto the side of I-275 near Fowler Avenue and killed on May 5, 2009 by Bedwell's then-boyfriend, Richard McTear.

McTear was convicted in 2014 of first-degree murder, kidnapping, battery, burglary with assault and aggravated child abuse. He is currently in prison, serving a life sentence.

The sisters’s mother, Lillie Bedwell, told us she hopes other women learn from her daughters’ stories.

“I think about it every day," said Lillie Bedwell. "I think about what I could have done to stop it. But a lot of times, they don’t tell me everything that’s going on."

The arrest affidavit said Sanders beat the little girl on different occasions from November to January. The final time Sanders reportedly got angry because the little girl wet her pants.

Kimberly Bedwell also reported that Sanders refused to buy her diapers because she should learn how to not wet herself.

Lillie Bedwell also told us this was not the first time her daughter Kimberly has had children taken away from her. She claims DCF took Kimberly’s three children away from her before; however, she was unsure why DCF was not currently involved with the two children she has now.

When contacted for comment, DCF said per state statute that they could not give out any information about Kimberly Bedwell’s case.

Pasco County Sheriff’s Office uses its own child protective investigators in child abuse cases inside the county. A spokesperson says it cannot release whether or not Kimberly Bedwell had been investigated before the most recent case.