Police: Man beats own daughter, 3, to death when she didn’t answer math question correctly

A Mississippi man admitted that he beat his daughter so severely that he caused fatal injuries, all over missed math questions.

Meridian Star reports that Joshua A. Salovich, 25, a boxer, is accused of brutally beating his child, Bailey Salovich, with his hands, a cellphone cord, and a bamboo rod. During court on Monday, Salovich admitted that he beat his daughter to “toughen her up.”

“This was a tough world and she had to be tough if she wanted to survive.”

The incident occurred last Friday. Bailey was taken to a local hospital where medical staff noted “suspicious injuries.” Physicians transferred the little girl to a Jackson hospital for additional treatment, but she passed away on Saturday. Although authorities haven’t released an official cause of death, medical experts indicated that the child had brain bleeding, a possible detached retina, and lungs filled up with blood.

Further, courts records state that Bailey had welts across her legs, a swollen belly, lacerations on her back side, a head injury, and severe bruising on her body. According to Meridian Police Detective Kevin Boyd, the little girl didn’t want to participate in the math game with her father, and in turn, was punished so brutally she lost her life.

“She apparently did not want to participate and get the correct numbers. He said he would pop her with his hands on her butt and legs when she got a wrong answer… (he said he) backhanded her several times in the stomach because she kept getting it wrong.”

Boyd said Bailey was so scared that she soiled herself. After Salovich changed her, she soiled herself once again. Salovich freely admitted that on a scale of severity from 1 to 10, he hit his daughter with a “10” force.

“The streets are hard… for her to survive she has to be hard, too” Salovich said.

During Monday’s preliminary hearing, Bailey’s mother, who wasn’t charged in the incident, started crying before collapsing. Metro Ambulance drove her to a local hospital.

Salovich was arrested and charged with capital murder. He remains in jail without bond.

[Feature Photo: Lancaster County Detention Facility]