Prosecutors have charged a Kansas City mother with endangering the welfare of a child after she told police that she mistakenly placed her 1-month-old baby in an oven instead of her crib, according to court documents filed Saturday.

The charge against Mariah Thomas is a Class A felony, prosecutors said Saturday.

Her child was declared dead Friday afternoon after emergency workers descended on a home in the 4100 block of Forest Avenue in the Manheim Park neighborhood. The infant had burn marks on her body and melted clothing, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in support of the criminal charge.

In a statement Saturday, Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said she appreciated the first responders and the prosecutors who rushed to the scene where the child was found.

“We acknowledge the gruesome nature of this tragedy and our hearts are weighted by the loss of this precious life,” Baker said. “We trust the criminal justice system to respond appropriately to these awful circumstances.”

Kansas City police responded to the Manheim Park residence at 1:24 p.m. Friday on a report of an infant that was not breathing. According to the police affidavit, the baby lay in a car seat inside the living room near the front door.

Officers observed apparent burn wounds on the baby’s body, the affidavit said, and the Kansas City Fire Department declared the child dead at the scene.

In the affidavit, officers said they told detectives that a witness said the mother of the child went to put the infant down for a nap and “accidentally placed her in the oven instead of the crib.” Detectives took statements from a witness who said around 1 p.m. he received a call that something was wrong with the baby and that he needed to return home immediately.

When he returned home, the affidavit said, he could smell smoke inside the house and found the baby dead inside the crib.

According to the affidavit, he picked up the baby and asked what happened. At that time, Thomas allegedly said, “I thought I put (redacted) in her crib and I accidentally put her in the oven.”

The baby had apparent “thermal injuries” on various parts of her body, the probable cause statement said. She was clothed in a “bodysuit” over a diaper and the clothing appeared to have melted to the diaper, police said.

The clothing was “very dirty, possibly burned on the backside,” the affidavit said. A baby blanket with “significant burn marks” was found in the living room.

Corinne Foreman, whose family has lived in the neighborhood for three years, told The Star on Friday that the block is typically a quiet one, packed with children who play outside. She said she heard someone yelling in distress Friday and then the sound of emergency sirens.

“And the next thing you know, I just heard, ‘They’re gone. They’re gone,’” said Foreman, 31, who has been staying with her family members for the past couple months.

She said she suspected the investigation involved a child when she saw a police officer holding a baby carrier.

“I thought I saw some kind of bag or something covered up in it,” Foreman said.

A spokeswoman with the Department of Social Services did not respond to an email about the child’s death that The Star sent on Friday.

The endangerment charge against Thomas comes weeks after another Kansas City child died under suspicious circumstances.

2 years, 3 more tragedies

On Nov. 27, 5-year-old Grayson O’Connor was found dead in a downtown Kansas City alley behind the Grand Boulevard Lofts at 10th Street and Grand Boulevard.

Officers looked up to see an open window on the 17th floor of the building. Detectives went inside the apartment to find 27-year-old Corrinne O’Connor underneath a wide-open window that was covered in chocolate.

Neighbors have said Grayson was often hungry and neglected. Others saw signs of physical or verbal abuse and said red flags were raised to police and state social services over the years.

Corrinne O’Connor was also charged with child endangerment resulting in death, a Class A felony that carries a maximum punishment of life in prison. She is accused of removing the window stops in her apartment, causing her son to fall to his death.

The baby is the fourth young child, including Grayson, killed in Kansas City in two years.

In mid-February of 2022, officers went to a home in the 7300 block of Indiana Avenue after a woman called 911 and said, “the devil was trying to attack her.” Police found blood leading from the sidewalk to the front door. An officer was able to look inside the house and see a severed head.

Police forced their way in and found Tasha Haefs in the kitchen with blood on her hands and feet, a search warrant application at the time said. Her son, Karvell Stevens was just 6 years old.

Prosecutors charged Haefs with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in her son’s death. Her criminal case remains pending, through two years of lengthy delays.

In August, a Jackson County judge suspended proceedings following evaluations by the Missouri Department of Mental Health suggesting that Haefs lacked the capacity to proceed with the case.

In November of that same year, Kansas City police found Ivy House, who was just six days from her 5th birthday, wrapped in blankets inside an apartment bedroom in the 5700 block of St. John Avenue. Her malnourished body was already decomposing.

Ivy’s twin sister, also inside the apartment, was malnourished and unresponsive when police arrived. She survived.

The girls’ mother, Adair Fish, is scheduled to stand trial early next month. She’s charged with two counts of Class A felony child abuse or neglect and two counts of felony child endangerment.