The Reason This Boy Was Left to Die by His Parents Is Truly Heartbreaking

Though age 2 is around the time a child starts to develop a tiny bit of autonomy with tasks like eating and dressing, it's not an age in which children can be left alone to fend for themselves. Two-year-old Braydon Barnes of St. Charles, MO, was left unattended for 38 hours in his crib with a hot space heater running and lost his life due to his parents' neglect.

Braydon's mother, Kathleen Peacock, 22, and his father, Lucas Barnes, 25, are facing criminal charges after Peacock discovered her son dead in his room last Sunday. An autopsy found that cause of death was hyperthermia — which is an elevated body temperature as a result of excessive exposure to heat — due to being trapped in his room with a space heater on for almost two days. While Braydon endured the heat alone, his mother and father — who were on a weekend drug binge — cooked methamphetamine, and authorities say that they ignored the boy's cries all weekend.

Neighbors and relatives — many of whom admit to distancing themselves from the family recently due to the parents' drug usage — are devastated. The couple's charges include child abuse and neglect and manufacturing meth.