Cops: Escort, boyfriend charged in death of boy, 3

NEWBERRY, S.C. -- A South Carolina couple is facing charges in the death of a three-year-old boy, reports CBS affiliate WSPA.

The child, Gabriel Apollo McArdle, was pronounced dead at a Newberry hospital Tuesday morning. The county coroner said the child's death was suspicious and determined his cause of death to be respiratory depression after a blow to his head caused hemorrhaging between his brain and spinal cord, reports the station.

The boy's mother, 21-year-old Theia McArdle, and her 27-year-old live-in boyfriend, Richard Bowman, are charged with homicide by child abuse. Officials say they have a Spartanburg County address, in northwest South Carolina, but they believe the child was abused in Newberry, about 50 miles south.

At a bond hearing Wednesday, investigators said McArdle works as an escort and was in Newberry to answer an online ad.

Neither suspect had a lawyer and the decision on bond was delayed until February, reports the station.