The parents of a 6-year-old boy who was found unconscious with his head in a toilet on July 5 in a Kissimmee motel room, died on Tuesday. The parents have been arrested for murder and aggravated child abuse.

Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez opened a news conference on Wednesday by saying, “this is one of the worst child abuse cases to ever take place in the history of Osceola County.”  The sheriff went on to explain the charges against Bianca Blaise and Larry Rhodes Jr., the parents of the 6-year-old boy and 5 other children who the sheriff says were all experiencing a pattern of child of abuse, abuse that led to the 6-year-old being hospitalized with a brain bleed and lacerated liver, before dying due to blunt trauma.  Sheriff Lopez said both parents took turns beating the 6-year-old.

On July 5, Osceola deputies responded to a call of a drowning inside the couple’s Knights Inn hotel off West Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway.  The mother, Bianca Blaise, told deputies that her 6-year-old son’s “head was in the toilet like he was drinking water” and “became unconscious.” Deputies said they found the 6-year-old boy without a pulse in his father Larry Rhodes Jr.’s arms, and that the 6-year-old wasn’t breathing. CPR was given to the boy who was then taken to the hospital and placed on life support. According to Sheriff Lopez, the boy died on Tuesday from blunt trauma.

The sheriff shared that investigators had learned that the child was drinking the toilet water, but that wasn’t why he wasn’t breathing when deputies entered the hotel room. “These people are savages,” Sheriff Lopez said.

“The parents were angry he was drinking from the toilet, so they began beating him,” Lopez said. “Maybe he was thirsty, he was just trying to survive.”

Lopez said both parents then took turns beating the 6-year-old child.

The couple’s other 5 children, who Lopez said were kept isolated in the hotel room, showed numerous injuries all over their bodies from what appears to be a pattern of physical abuse.

“The other children in the room were also victims of child abuse,” Sheriff Lopez said. “You could tell they were abused by simply looking at them – they also looked malnourished. All the kids had bruises, cuts, and marks on their tiny little bodies.”

The 5 children, ages 10 months to 5 years,  have all been placed in foster care, and according to the sheriff are doing well.

The parents were arrested and charged with Murder While Engaged in Aggravated Child Abuse, Aggravated Child Abuse, Battery, Touch or Strike, and 6 counts of Child Neglect with Great Bodily Harm.According to Sheriff Lopez, the state attorney’s office has also charged the couple with murder.

According to the sheriff, neither parent had a serious criminal history.