Mexican woman gets 30 years for murdering her child

A woman in Mexico has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for murdering her infant daughter through neglect so severe authorities found the malnourished toddler partially eaten by ants.

Mariana Lizeth Hernandez Salas had neglected her 18-month-old daughter so badly it shocked the entire community of Chihuahua when news broke in 2014.

Childcare workers were alerted to the possible neglect when a neighbour noticed the child spending too much time on her own, Excelsior reports.

They visited the house and found the infant, Luna Estefania, in a deplorable state of neglect.

Luna was not fed for 15 days from the end of April last year. She was also partially paralysed, and had suffered a severe blow to the head when she was two months old. When police and child protection officials found the child, her body was reportedly covered in ants, some eating away at her body.

A witness said the ants had “infested” the child.

The child was hospitalised but died after two months on July 26.