Wake Forest police believe the abuse was ongoing because when they found the child, doctors reported that some of the injuries were healing and one was fresh.
Police arrested 26-year-old Eishauna Armstead Thursday after a three-month investigation when the child was just eight weeks old.
Armstead and the baby lived with an older child at an apartment on North Allen Road.
After receiving a tip about a child with injuries, police said the child was examined by doctors who discovered the broken bones. Doctors then discovered the abuse had been ongoing because some injuries were healing, while one rib had been broken no more than a day earlier.
Neighbors told ABC11 that the injured baby was the talk of the complex, and one lady said she witnessed the injuries firsthand.
"We was having a function at her house and my daughter was holding her baby, holding the baby up. And she was like 'heeu, heeu' (gasping), like that. And I was like, 'What's wrong with the baby?' She was like, 'The doctor says that the baby, you know, that was normal,'" neighbor Kristina Stewart said. "Then I heard that the baby had fractured ribs and all this kind of stuff. And me and her had some words about that because, I mean, that's, that's not right."
At the courthouse Friday, Armstead was in tears as she faced a judge. She did not cry when the judge read the charges against her. Instead, she cried when he said he would not let her out of jail.
The baby and her older sibling have been in the custody of child protective services since the investigation began in April.
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