4-year-old Richland girl dies after being placed in scalding water; parents charged

A 4-year-old Richland County girl has died and her parents have been charged after the girl was allegedly abused, including being placed in scalding hot water as a form of punishment, officials say.

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said Friday morning that Wilbur W. Fields, 34, and Fifi Hill, 32, have each been charged with homicide by child abuse and two counts of neglect by a legal guardian. Fields and Hill were being held in the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center as of Friday.

Richland County Coroner Naida Rutherford said the victim in the case was 4-year-old Hope Fields. Rutherford said Fields died just after 11 a.m. on Feb. 18. The coroner said the child was initially brought to the hospital on the evening of Feb. 16.

Noting that child abuse incidents are some of the “toughest cases we have to deal with” and at times speaking in a voice dripping with emotion, Lott said at a Friday news conference that there is a “special place in Heaven” for young Hope Fields, and a “special place in hell” for her parents.

“Last Friday (Feb. 16) Prisma Hospital notified us that a 4-year-old had been brought into the hospital with severe burns, broken bones, and cardiac arrest a couple times on the way to the hospital,” Lott said. “She was placed on life support, and at that time we started an investigation.”

Lott alleges that the day before, on Feb. 15, Wilbur Fields put Hope in scalding water as a form of punishment. The sheriff alleged that Hill “stood by and watched” as the child was placed in the scalding water. Other children, siblings of Hope Fields, were present in the home while the incident was occurring, the sheriff said. Those children have been placed in protective custody, Lott said.

“It’s sad that we have to stand up here and talk about a 4-year-old whose life was just taken because she was a child,” Lott said. “She was a child. A 4-year-old. And to have your own parents do that to you, I think it’s the worst thing in the world that could happen.”

Rutherford described Hope Fields’ injuries as “horrific” and said the details of the case were “enough to rock anybody to their core.”

“This was not an accident,” Rutherford said of the abuse the girl reportedly suffered. “It was intentional. She fought hard, but her little body couldn’t recover.”