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BROOKSVILLE — After she became a teenage mother last September, Breanna Underwood never called a place home for longer than a few months.
Underwood and her newborn son, Hunter Morris, bounced around over the past year, family members say. She lived with her grandparents in Starke for several months, then with her father in Hampton and later with her mother near Brooksville.
Finally, she found a new boyfriend, David McBurnett Jr., and tried to start a new life in a small mobile home of their own near Brooksville. But they moved again, at least twice, before winding up at the home of McBurnett's mother in the 25800 block of Geronimo Street, in northeast Hernando County.
"I guess she got down there and got around the wrong people," her uncle, Landon Underwood, said Monday from Bradford County.
McBurnett, 19, of Brooksville was charged with murder Saturday after the child died from a number of injuries caused by abuse, deputies said. He is being held in the Hernando County Jail without bail and has an Oct. 13 court hearing.
There were no developments in the case Monday, though information about Hunter and the teenage couple began to come to light.
State authorities said they had no prior contact with McBurnett and Breanna Underwood before getting a call from authorities Friday.
"We did not have any prior involvement with the child," said Bill D'Aiuto, a Circuit 5 administrator with the Florida Department of Children and Families. "But we're working concurrently with law enforcement trying to get a better sense for the incident and the circumstances around it. It's tragic. We hate to hear about anything like this."
Authorities say the abuse of Hunter, who celebrated his first birthday Sept. 3, began in March.
McBurnett would repeatedly hit the baby on his hands and feet with a remote control because of the boy's crying, an arrest report said. He also struck Hunter with a Nike sandal and his hands, and grabbed the boy by the face and squeezed him, the report said.
Underwood, 19, witnessed the abuse, authorities said.
Authorities said they got involved after Hunter was taken to the emergency room last week and hospital officials contacted the Sheriff's Office.
Deputies arrested McBurnett on Thursday on one count of aggravated child abuse. By that time, the child was severely injured and likely brain dead, the Sheriff's Office said.
He also had internal bleeding, a fractured rib and numerous bruises on his body.
The baby died at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, prompting authorities to upgrade the charge to murder.
Other than sparse information in a few pages of arrest affidavits, little else was revealed about McBurnett or Underwood by family members and acquaintances reached by the Times on Monday.
McBurnett attended Hernando High School and excelled in the school's FFA chapter, teaming with a classmate to win their Agriscience Fair category and representing Florida at the National FFA Agriscience Fair in 2006.
"I never had behavioral issues with him," said Rick Ahrens, the FFA adviser and a teacher at Hernando High. "I never had any problem with him. But he left my program after his sophomore and junior year, and I really didn't have any contact with him after that."
It wasn't immediately clear if McBurnett had graduated from high school.
Meanwhile, family members said Underwood dropped out of Bradford High School in Starke a couple of years ago and later moved in with her boyfriend at the time, Charles Morris.
Underwood got pregnant months later, and Morris was believed to be the father, relatives said, but the couple never had much of a relationship after Hunter was born.
"He was never in the kid's life," Landon Underwood said. "He never tried to be a responsible dad."
Breanna Underwood moved in with her grandparents after Hunter's birth, but later moved out to live with her mother near Brooksville. After that, family members in Bradford County had very little contact with Underwood, they said.
"We didn't know what was going on," said her grandmother, Lillian Underwood. "We never met (McBurnett) or even knew who he was. I did not want her to leave the house."
Reached at her home Monday, McBurnett's mother, Regina McBurnett, had little to say about her son. She did say she believes he is innocent of the charges against him.
"I don't believe that my son has done this," she said. "I don't believe that he has that in him."
Times researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this report. Joel Anderson can be reached at joelanderson@sptimes.com or (352) 754-6120.
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