Tragic Discovery at Parents' Home

Police are trained to deal with tragedy on a daily basis. But what cops in Fort Lauderdale encountered on Valentine's Day in 2004 was especially heartbreaking. It all started when they responded to a father's 9-1-1 call.

What they found was 3-month-old Makeisha Dantus's lifeless body, weighing less than 15 lbs. Makeisha's mother, Mardala Derival, told police that her daughter had always been a colicky baby. Cops say the mother admitted that she and the girl's father, Mackenson Dantus, had been giving Makeisha a Haitian home remedy to soothe her.

That remedy was made from vodka, dilluted by water and sugar.

Police at first wondered if this was a case of abuse, or simply a horrible accident.

Cops: Beyond a Mistake

But autopsy results removed any doubt police may have had that this was a one-time mistake.

The Broward County Medical Examiner's Office reportedly found that Makeisha had suffered hepatic steatosis, or degeneration of the liver, from long term use of alcohol. Doctors say that for a liver to degnerate, one third of a person's calories must be from alcohol.

At the time of her death, Makeisha had a blood alcohol level of .47 percent, the equivalent to a 160-pound person chugging 18 beers or three eight-ounce glasses of 80-proof alcohol.

Police issued a warrant for the arrest of the couple, for homicide and aggravated manslaughter. According to officials, Derival and Dantus went on the run to New Jersey, staying with relatives. But turned themselves in at a police station in Trenton, NJ.

Soon, a jury will decide the duo's fate.

Parents of Vodka-Posioned Baby in Custody

Mackenson Dantus and Mardala Derival fled to escape charges of killing their infant daughter with a deadly dose of vodka. But now the pair is in police custody in Trenton, NJ.

Police say the couple turned themselves in after leaving Fort Lauderdale and going to New Jersey. Plans to extradite the pair back to Broward County, Florida are underway. Soon jurors will have to decide whether the new parents made a tragic mistake or were criminally negligent.