*The Food Network has shelved the latest season of the reality series “Worst Cooks In America” after its recent champion was arrested for a child’s murder.
Ariel Robinson, 29, was charged Tuesday along with her husband, Jerry Robinson, in the death of their 3-year-old foster daughter Victoria Smith.
On Jan. 14, police found the child unresponsive in the couple’s home in Simpsonville, South Carolina. The coroner determined the child’s cause of death to be multiple blunt force injuries. The couple now faces counts of homicide by child abuse, per PEOPLE.
Ariel won $25,000 in the latest edition of “Worst Cooks in America.” Season 20 of the cooking competition was filmed last February and aired later in the year. After news of her arrest, the season was yanked from Food Network’s Discovery+, Hulu and YouTube.
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“Police officers handle all kinds of cases, and these kind of cases can be the hardest for them to do,” Simpsonville police spokesman Justin Lee Campbell told PEOPLE. “It is a sad day. You bring charges and maybe convictions, but at the end of the day the life of a child was taken. For anyone who knew the victim or was related to the victim, they are in our thoughts and prayers.”
Ariel was also a former ELA teacher at Sanders Middle School. She left the district at end of the 2018-19 school year. On Jan. 21, the South Carolina Board of Education suspended her educator certificate as a result of the murder charge. The suspension document said:
“The SCDE has reason to believe that, due to the serious nature of these allegations of misconduct, Ms. Robinson may pose a threat to the health, safety, and welfare of students, who may be under her instruction and that emergency action is required. After considering the evidence presented by the SCDE, the Chair of the State Board finds that Ms. Robinson’s educator certificate shall be summarily suspended until a due process hearing is held and/or this matter is otherwise resolved.”
Ariel and Jerry’s bond was denied at a court hearing last week. Both are being held at the Greenville County Detention Center.
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