John Jefferson
Left to right: Cheyenne Star Fite (Osceola County Sheriff’s Office) and Riley Scot Hogeback (Lanier Funeral and Cremation Services).
A 25-year-old woman in Florida has been arrested in connection with the death of her 5-year-old stepson, who authorities say drowned in a manmade ditch filled with urine and feces. Cheyenne Star Fite was taken into custody on Tuesday and charged with one count of aggravated manslaughter by child abuse, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
According to a probable cause affidavit, deputies with the Osceola Sheriff’s Office at about 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 11, 2024, responded to a call regarding a drowning at a home in the 5800 block of North Kenansville Road in Kissimmee. Upon arriving, first responders located a 5-year-old boy “unresponsive, naked, and covered in mud.”
Paramedics transported the child to HCA Florida Osceola East Emergency where he was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m. as a result of drowning.
In an interview with investigators, Fite allegedly said she was watching the child and his two siblings, ages 3 and 5, and allowed the boys to run around the yard because the property had no electricity at the time. She also said there were several ankle-deep puddles in the yard due to rain from Hurricane Helene and the kids were “entertaining themselves in the mud.”
“Cheyenne [Fite] stated as the kids were playing, she turned her back for approximately 5 minutes to fold clothes inside the trailer,” the affidavit states. “All of a sudden, Cheyenne [Fite] hears her 5-year-old daughter yell, ‘[redacted] is under the water.’ Yet, Cheyenne [Fite] did not believe [her daughter] initially and continued her task.”
Fite also said that a family friend had been over earlier in the day and “dug a deep hole to drain the water on the property.” The hole measured about 15 feet by 10 feet and was about 7 feet deep, police said. It was located next to a pigpen and was filled with what “appeared to be run-off water from the pig pen.”
After some time, Fite realized she hadn’t seen any sign of the 5-year-old boy and that he was “inside the manmade hole underneath the ‘dirty and muddy’ water,” so she jumped in and pulled him out. Fite said the boy did not know how to swim and refused to provide police with her phone number, claiming her cellphone was “in the hole.” Unable to call 911, Fite said she yelled for help and her mother came to assist.
The boy’s father told police he was working at the time of the incident and said Fite was responsible for watching his son. The father told police he “had suspicions” Fite was “not properly providing supervision of his son at the time” and said he was “furious a hole was dug without his knowledge and that hole was where his son drowned.”
Fite allegedly claimed the hole was “a few feet away” from where she was folding clothes and could “hear the children if she turned around. However, police said the distance from the hole to the trailer was about the length of a football field and that her view would have been obstructed, making it “unlikely” she could have provided “proper supervision of the children at the time.”
In examining the hole where the boy drowned, police said there was “an odor emanating from the water consistent with fecal matter and urine.”
“There was a green child-size boogie board in the middle of the drainage ditch near the area where [the victim] was recovered,” the affidavit states.
One of the victim’s siblings told police that Fite had left her brother “outside naked as a form of punishment because he was hurting a chicken early that day,” per the affidavit. The child also said that while her brother was drowning, Fite was asleep in bed.
In court documents, prosecutors said the child’s cause of death was determined to be drowning, adding that his “lungs were lined by brown and green mud.”
Fite is currently being held in the Osceola County Jail without bond and is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday.
According to an online obituary, the victim’s name was Riley Scot Hogeback.
“He was a sweet but mischievous boy, always ready with a laugh that could light up a room,” the dedication said. “Even in challenging moments, Riley’s spirit remained unbreakable, and his smile never waned. His love for life and his ability to find joy in the simplest of things were an inspiration to all who knew him.”
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