Courtesy of Boston Herald

Stephen Michael Williams Jr. and Amanda Hancock face child endangerment charges.

Police officers charged former Santa Rosa Junior College students with murder and criminal mistreatment on Feb. 17 after an autopsy revealed their 7-week-old son died of starvation on Jan. 22.

The couple, Stephen Michael Williams Jr. and Amanda Hancock, resided in Glendale, Oregon, at the time of their son Data’s death after moving from Santa Rosa a couple months before.

“The last time I saw them was sometime in September. They were staying by the downtown fairground area in a garage,” said SRJC alumnus Nathan Feldhorn, who knows the couple. “I think it was Amanda’s mom’s house or her mom’s boyfriend’s.”

He later described the house as “shanty” and that it “reeked of cigarette smoke.”

Douglas County police also charged Williams, 26, and Hancock, 21, with four counts of endangering the welfare of a minor. There was no bail set for the charges.

In an interview with the Glendale Daily Courier, a neighbor who was home on Jan. 22, said, “The girl came running over here banging on the door and started screaming that her baby wasn’t breathing.”

She went back to the house with Hancock, where a 911 dispatcher was on speakerphone and a man was giving the baby CPR.

The couple’s income came from doing online webcam porn. Before the arrest, they used social media sites like Twitter to promote their webcam accounts. Their most recently used webcam chat site, Chatterbate, has banned both of their accounts. However, their Twitter and Facebook are still publicly accessible.

“They tried to get out of poverty by free-spirited ways,” said friend Andre Estournes.

Normally Hancock’s Twitter account would be filled with nude, sexual pictures of herself and Williams and promotions for her webcam modeling sites. Between the time of Data’s death and the couple’s arrest, Hancock used Twitter posts and sold nude pictures to raise funds for the infant’s memorial service.

The couple had another 2-year-old son together who was living with them. Since the incident, officials have put their son in protective custody. Williams has two other young children with another woman.

At the time of Data’s birth, Child Protective Services came by the hospital as a requirement due to the lack of prenatal care appointments during the pregnancy. The nursing staff didn’t let them in and the couple never took Data for any doctor’s visits after. The sheriff’s office hadn’t responded to any problems at the family’s home prior to the baby’s death.

Williams named Data and his three other children after Star Trek characters or terms. Williams was considered a devoted “Trekkie”. His interest in Star Trek intertwined with his tattoo habits and he is covered from head to toe with over 100 spots resembling the fictional Star Trek Talaxian species.

Williams and Hancock both did photo shoots with a local photographer, who wished not to be named. For Hancock’s photo shoot at a local park, she took pictures naked in the trees while several months pregnant with Data.

The responses from the Glendale community were sympathetic. The couple’s online friends showered them with condolences, prayers, positive messages and offers to help their family. A forum for the Southern Oregon community website noted how Glendale residents paid their water and sewage bill to help support them in their time of loss. On Feb. 18, public sympathy abruptly stopped when the news broke of the couple’s arrest.

Brittanie England knew Williams her whole life and said he is one of the most caring people she knows.

“I am devastated, but I can say that they are not some cold blooded killers. They may not have been living right or been great parents,” England said. “The baby was malnourished from the beginning. He shouldn’t have left the hospital, period.”

England said she had talked to Hancock about a week after the baby passed and “she was completely distraught, broken in a state of not knowing what to do.”