I thought these two statements we rather contradictory:
"A four-year-old kid should not be roaming the house at night unsupervised," Reece said. "What she was trying to do was keep the child safe."
*********and then directly below it*********
Layers of thin, long bruises -- old and new -- stretched from Sean's bottom to his shoulder blade, the autopsy said. In addition to the binding, Paddock had been whipping the boy with a plastic plumbing pipe, Johnston County sheriff's deputies have said.
Investigators say Paddock had also been whipping Sean's 8-year-old sister and 9-year-old brother with the thin, flexible pipes. She faces felony child abuse charges in connection with their injuries.
She was trying to keep the child safe by beating him, and smothering him. Why couldn't she have put up a baby gate, or better yet, helped him go back to sleep? Some "mother".