LIBERTY, Neb. (KOLN) — A woman and her fiancé are charged in the brutal death of a 5-year-old boy and the beating of a 1-year-old child.

Prosecutors have charged 30-year-old Hannah Peterson and 31-year-old Timothy Erks Jr., both of Liberty, Nebraska. The couple faces a slew of child abuse charges.

Shortly before 7 a.m. June 23, the Gage County Sheriff’s Office was notified that a 5-year-old boy was unresponsive and receiving care at a hospital in Kansas City, Missouri.

Deputies determined the child had first been taken to a hospital in Marysville, Kansas, before being emergency transported to Kansas City for specialized care.

Peterson, the boy’s mother, told authorities that the boy was in a bicycle accident and later passed out from heat exhaustion. He was taken to a hospital in Marys

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