HollyMatkinWorchester, MA – A two-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by a man in a Walmart parking lot on Jan. 18, while the child’s mother recorded the abuse with a cell phone, police said.
Investigators said that 24-year-old Joshua Rezsnyak forced the toddler to perform sex acts on him in a vehicle, while her mother, 27-year-old Mary McForbes, took photographs, WFXT reported.
A witness saw the rape as it unfolded inside the maroon Ford Explorer, and noticed that the woman was documenting the assault using a large white cell phone, Assistant District Attorney Lina Pashou said, according to MassLive.
The witness made eye contact with Rezsnyak as he sexually abused the child. He picked her up and placed her in the backseat of the vehicle, Pashou said.
Investigators later found surveillance video from the store, which showed Rezsnyak and McForbes as they entered the business after the rape took place, she said.
The witness immediately reported the incident to police, and the victim was taken for emergency medical care.
A sexual assault nurse examined the toddler, who was found to have abrasions consistent with penetration, according to Pashou.
Rezsnyak and McForbes were charged with rape of a child, aggravated, 10 year age difference. McForbes was also charged with reckless endangerment of a child.
The Department of Children and Families (DCF) took custody of the victim, as well as another unnamed child, MassLive reported.
“The Department of Children and Families received a report and took emergency custody of the children in this matter,” a DCF spokeswoman said on Tuesday. No further information was released due to confidentiality laws.
Neighbors told WFXT that Rezsnyak just moved into the residence with McForbes about two weeks ago.
“She doesn’t let them come out,” downstairs neighbor Mary Lee Rosa said of McForbes’ two children. “Never seen them outside in the summer, never seen them come out the house.”
“She’s a little girl,” Rosa said. “Half the time I see her, she is always crying.”
They described the toddler as “beautiful,” and said she has blond hair and blue eyes, WFXT reported.
The pair pleaded not guilty on Monday, MassLive reported.
During the arraignment, Pashou did not disclose what McForbes and Rezsnyak may have intended to do with the images stored on the cell phone.
McForbes is being held on $25,000 cash bond, while Rezsnyak was ordered to be held on a $50,000 cash bond.
Both have been ordered to have no contact with the victim, and are due back in court on Feb. 21.