Foster Mom-of-5 Charged in Baby’s Death — as Son Gets Arrested for Child Porn During Investigation

Texas Foster Mom-of-5 Charged in Baby's Death

More than a week after the death of a baby she was caring for, a Texas foster mother faces charges.

A press release from the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office confirms Natalie Parker — a 37-year-old Forney woman who had been fostering five children on Dec. 29, 2018, when the baby was declared dead — was arrested on Monday.

Parker was charged with tampering with a witness, injury to a child and abandoning or endangering a child, all felonies.

The baby’s name has not been released.

Parker is being held on $195,000 bail. She has yet to enter pleas to the charges, and PEOPLE was unable to determine if she has retained legal counsel.

Authorities have yet to determine a cause of death for the 5-month-old victim, according to the press release.

Parker had been caring for the infant along with her brother and three other children, police say.

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Child Protective Services officials told WFAA the four foster children were moved into other foster homes.

Parker also had two biological children living in the same home, the press release states.

One of them, Parker’s 19-year-old son Christian Richmond, posted bail on Jan. 3, the day after his arrest on a single possession of child pornography charge.

The illicit files were allegedly discovered on his phone during the course of the investigation into the baby’s death.

Officials say Richmond was not involved in the infant’s death, and are working to determine if the victim was featured in any of the illegal files allegedly found on his phone.

It was not immediately clear if Richmond has retained a lawyer.