Mississippi dad admits beating three-year-old daughter to death because she couldn’t answer MATH questions correctly – Joshua Salovich told cops she ‘had to be tough if she wanted to survive’
‘There is a special place in the netherworld for this jackass.
An aspiring professional boxer letting loose on a three-year-old child?
His own daughter too.’
Mississippi dad admits he beat his three-year-old daughter to death because she couldn’t answer MATH questions correctly and tells cops she ‘had to be tough if she wanted to survive’
Joshua Salovich, a trainee boxer told cops he beat three-year-old Bailey over math questions, Friday afternoon in Meridian, Mississippi
Bailey Salovich was taken by medevac to a Jackson, Miss., hospital where she died Saturday afternoon
Cops say 25-year-old Salovich blurted ‘I killed my child’ when he was told his toddler died
He admitted that he beat her with a rod, a phone cord and his hands at max force
Told cops ‘this was a tough world and she had to be tough if she wanted to survive’
The girl’s mother collapsed in the courtroom after crying through the hearing
Salovich who was arrested after the hospital called cops over Bailey’s suspicious injuries, faces the death penalty
A Mississippi father has confessed to beating his three-year-old daughter to death because she couldn’t answer math questions correctly and has told investigators ‘she had to be tough if she wanted to survive.’
Joshua Salovich [photo, left], was charged with capital murder, meaning he could face the death penalty, and is being held without bail after the horrifying attack on Friday.
Detectives testified that the 25-year-old boxer in training beat toddler Bailey Salovich at maximum force with a bamboo rod, a cellphone cord and his hands.
Salovich also said ‘this was a tough world and she had to be tough if she wanted to survive,’ Meridian Police Chief Benny Dubose said Monday.
‘She apparently did not want to participate and get the correct numbers,’ Detective Kevin Boyd said.
‘He said he would pop her with his hands on her butt and legs when she got a wrong answer… (he said he) backhanded her several times in the stomach because she kept getting it wrong.’
When Salovich was told the child died Boyd said he ‘got upset. What he stated was, ‘I killed my child. I killed my child,’ according to the Meridian Star.
Dubose said it isn’t clear whether Salovich is the child’s biological father.
Joshua Salovich enters the municipal courtroom for his preliminary hearing in the death of three-year-old Bailey Salovich, Monday
Police were called Friday afternoon after the child arrived at a local emergency room with bruises and cuts all over her body, and at least one head wound, Dubose said.
Questioning Salovich and the child’s mother separately, Dubose said Salovich told police that he was asking the toddler questions about numbers and would ‘pop’ her when she answered incorrectly.
Salovich said he had used the same method to discipline the child at least five times per week, Dubose said. Salovich told police he used a bamboo rod until it broke, then switched to a cellphone cord to administer some of the licks. Other blows came from his hand.
‘He did state that on that day, the child was giving an unusual amount of incorrect answers,’ Dubose said.
The girl was later taken by helicopter to a Jackson hospital for treatment, where she died Saturday afternoon, Dubose said.
The hospital called in the police after the three-year-old was brought in with a swollen, red abdomen, bruises and welts on her legs, lacerations on her buttocks, U-shaped marks on her legs and buttocks as well as a head wound.
Police said the toddler’s injuries included bleeding in the brain and lungs, and possible retinal detachment.
Police are awaiting autopsy results to determine a cause of death.
When investigators asked Salovich how hard he had hit the child, on a scale of one being a tap and 10 being as hard as he could, ‘he rated them all 10s, with no hesitation,’ Dubose said.
Boxer-in-training, Joshua Salovich,, reacted to news of the death of his daughter by telling police, ‘this was a tough world and she had to be tough if she wanted to survive’
Dubose said Joshua Salovich and the mother, who has a different last name, said the mother was in a different room, explaining why she hasn’t been charged. But Dubose said police are still investigating, including whether the mother knew about his punishment methods.
Dubose said police hadn’t received any earlier reports about the child or the adults.
The Meridian Star reported that the mother, who cried with relatives through most of the preliminary hearing, collapsed after the hearing and was taken to a local hospital by ambulance.
Dubose said that in his decades of police work, it’s unusual for someone to freely admit abusing a child as Joshua Salovich did.
‘He was pretty straightforward about what he did and why he did it,’ Dubose said.
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