Texas Cheerleader Dies After Parents Fail to Seek Medical Help

Tragic Fate of Texas Cheerleader

A 12-year-old Texas cheer­leader died Mon­day, four days after she suf­fered mys­te­ri­ous “life-threat­en­ing” injuries that her par­ents tried to treat with smooth­ies and vit­a­mins, author­i­ties announced.

Negligent Parents Arrested

Jour­dan­ton Junior High School stu­dent Miran­da Sipps died in the hos­pi­tal after her moth­er, Denise Bal­bane­da, and step­fa­ther, Ger­ald Gon­za­lez, 40, were arrest­ed for fail­ing to seek med­ical help soon­er for the girl dur­ing the four days while she was “men­tal­ly and phys­i­cal­ly inca­pac­i­tat­ed and non-responsive.”

Delayed Medical Attention

The pair did­n’t sound the alarm soon­er because they “did­n’t want to draw atten­tion to the girl’s con­di­tion,” accord­ing to the Atas­cosa Coun­ty Sher­if­f’s Office. Bal­bane­da only called for help after her child went into res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­tress on Mon­day night.

Tragic Ending

Med­ical staff “vig­or­ous­ly” treat­ed Sipps, but could­n’t save her. Author­i­ties said the pre­teen suf­fered “seri­ous life-threat­en­ing” injuries on Thurs­day evening, but her par­ents con­tin­ued to feed her smooth­ies and vit­a­mins instead of seek­ing imme­di­ate med­ical attention.

Ongoing Investigation

Bal­bane­da and Gon­za­lez were arrest­ed and charged with injury to a child caus­ing seri­ous bod­i­ly injury by omis­sion, a first-degree felony. 

The inves­ti­ga­tion is ongo­ing as author­i­ties await a final autop­sy report to deter­mine the exact cause of Sipps’ injuries and death.