Florida man arrested for urging pregnant daughter, 13, to kill herself: police
A booking photo for Florida native Gared Canales, who is charged with felony child abuse for allegedly goading his daughter to kill herself. (Flagler County Sheriffs Office)
FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. - A Florida man is accused of callously goading his teenage daughter to kill herself by calling her "pregnant and worthless" two days before she attempted suicide, according to court records.
Gared Wayne Canales, 33, told his 13-year-old daughter in a conversation over speakerphone in April that she was a "whore" and to "go kill yourself," an arrest affidavit alleges.
The vicious verbal onslaught began April 7 when the teenager called her father on speakerphone while her friends were hanging out with her in her room.
He allegedly called her a "b----, slut whore" and told her to go "f--- yourself." The girl was trying to express how she felt about him when he cut in, "You're not worth it. I choose my girlfriend over you anyway, and go kill yourself."
He added at some point during the conversation, "You kill yourself, just don't say it." The abuse prompted the child to grab her brother's baseball bat and smash a photo of her and her father, the affidavit says.
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Prior to the vile attack, the girl had told her father by text that she felt a desire to harm herself.
The abuse prompted the young girl to slice her wrist with a knife and piece of glass, then swallow 14 Benadryl pills on April 9, the document charges. After telling her mother what she'd done, she was rushed to the Halifax Hospital in Daytona Beach, where her stomach was pumped.
A judge issued an arrest warrant April 14 for the Ormond Beach man, who was found in Massachusetts and extradited last week to Florida.
Canales, who is currently being held in the Flagler County Jail without bond, is charged with one count each of felony child abuse and misdemeanor violation of probation.
A restraining order barring Canales from any contact with his daughter was issued June 19.
The public defender's office, which is representing Canales, didn't immediately return a request for comment.