[Anchor]

A 17-month-old girl was found in cardiac arrest in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, and taken to a hospital, but she ultimately passed away. Police have arrested the father, who left his young daughter alone while going to work and failed to feed her properly for about 10 days.

Reporter Im Jihyeon has the details.

[Reporter]

Around 10 PM on the 28th, in front of a residence in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

Several ambulances and police cars are parked at the scene.

Emergency responders were dispatched after receiving a report from the child's father stating that his 17-month-old daughter was not breathing.

The child was transported to the hospital in cardiac arrest and eventually died.

While no external trauma was found on her body, the child was severely emaciated, and the National Forensic Service provided a verbal opinion following an autopsy that the cause of death appears to be malnutrition.

It was found that the father of the deceased child went to work for about 10 days without properly feeding her.

Having confirmed circumstances pointing to neglect, the police arrested the biological father, a man in his 30s identified as A, on charges of child abuse resulting in death.

[Suspect A: (Were you not aware that the child could die?) I am sorry.]

Police reported that A stated during questioning, "My wife left the house earlier this month, and with no one to look after her, I left the child alone and went to work."

Investigators also found that for the past 10 days or so, A fed his daughter formula only twice a day, before leaving for work and after returning home.

Police concluded that A neglected the child by failing to transition her to solid foods, which is standard for a 17-month-old, and leaving her unattended.

The local municipal government stated that A had no prior reports of child abuse and was not a recipient of basic livelihood security benefits.

[Resident: I had no idea there was a child in that household because I had never seen anyone out with a baby. There was a time when the couple had a fight. I woke up from sleep inside my house because they were arguing so violently...]

While conducting a forensic analysis on A's mobile phone, the police are continuing to investigate A regarding the exact reasons he failed to properly care for the child.

(VJ: Lee Jun-young, No Jae-min | Video Editing: Kim Jong-mi)