FORT MYERS, Fla. - "You can't even put it into words how bad it is," explained Detective Rob Smith, recalling his Wednesday visit with a 2-year-old Fort Myers child, the victim of one of the most "horrendous" cases of abuse he's seen.

As a detective with the Lee County Sheriff's Office Child Abuse Investigations Unit, he deals with the unthinkable on a daily basis.

But, the case involving the 2-year-old continues to shock him.

The child's father's girlfriend, Rosemary Kunz, is accused of causing a head trauma so severe, the child had to be airlifted to All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg within minutes of arriving at a local hospital.

The toddler was last listed in critical, but stable condition Thursday morning.

There was some good news, detectives say the child's aunt called to tell them the toddler recently opened his eyes and was responsive to his family.

However, the long term prognosis is still unknown.

Detectives say Kunz, initially denied she did anything, but eventually gave them a confession they were not expecting.

"She actually admitted she was addicted to abusing this child which was a first for me," said Detective Smith, "She admitted to pushing him down, she admitted to pushing him into walls, floors, kicking his feet from underneath him. She admitted she bit him."

Detective Smith tells WINK News the toddler's father worked 14-hour days, but that's not the only reason why he says the man knew nothing about what was going on behind closed doors.

"She told me he had nothing to do with it, absolutely nothing. She would lie to him, she would make up injuries," explained Detective Smith, "She said it was easy for her to lie to him because he would fall...she would leave out the part where she caused him to fall."

Detective Smith added that Kunz did all she could to cover up the injuries, "She would have them in long sleeve pj's, long pants to cover up the bite marks on his arm."

While she had two of her own children in the house, she didn't lay a hand on them according to detectives.

For some reason, she focused on the toddler.

"There is no reason a child needs to be laying in bed right now, hooked up to machines and fighting for his life...absolute nonsense," said Detective Smith.

Since the Child Abuse Investigations Unit was introduced in March, Smith and the head of the unit Tammey Gray tell us, this is the most horrendous case they've had to investigate.

Additional charges are pending against Kunz.

Detectives tell us they do not plan on filing charges against the father because his story checked out.

However, the Department of Children and Families says it has opened an investigation into the father to determine whether there was a failure to protect.

The two other children were removed from the home and are in the care of relatives.