Police officials said that the 35-year-old woman, Kellie, brought the toddler to the hospital. The 2-year-old boy was reportedly blue and lifeless, with several bruises across his body, the doctors told investigators.
Per reports, Kellie told the doctors that the bruises were self-injuries that the baby caused by throwing himself around. But what doctors found inconsistent with Kellie’s story was that the child’s body was at a core temperature of 82 degrees when the nurse brought him to the hospital, indicating that for about 40 minutes, the toddler had been dead.
According to Kellie’s story, she was giving the child a bath that day before she had to bring him to the hospital. And during the bath he “threw himself several times from the bath to the toilet” and it may have caused him to have a seizure in the bathtub.
But her husband, Kyle, told investigators that the child doesn’t usually throw himself around like that. Doctors found that the child’s injuries also didn’t match the nurse’s story, noting that he a number of bruises on his back and side, a cut on the inside of his lip as well as his genitals, a small bump on his head, and several marks on his face.
According to the autopsy report, Henry was deemed to have passed away from asphyxiation due to blunt-force trauma and the manner of death was listed as a homicide, as per court documents. Initially, little Henry was fostered by his loving grandmother, Kayla, who thoroughly enjoyed looking after him knew her age would stop her from being a full-time carer for him. Kellie, who also had a daughter, pleasantly surprised the family when she offered to adopt Henry. It’s been a year since she started taking care of Henry and the adoption was planned for later this year. “Kellie stated it was a sign from God, as they wanted to have another child and had they had a boy, they were going to name him Henry,” a spokesperson for the family said. The family was excited about this. Henry would be with family and we would all get to be a part of his life and watch him grow. The situation was perfect.”
In their joy to see Henry grow up with someone they knew, the family missed any possible signs of the toddler being abused. “We trusted Kellie and feel betrayed. We want justice for Henry. Kellie needs to be held accountable to what she did to a vulnerable child. Henry trusted her, we trusted her and now a little life is gone,” the family member said. When they heard about Kellie’s reasoning of the toddler self-harming himself to cause injuries, they said it was completely false. “Henry did not have self-harming tendencies outside of typical toddler tantrums. Even with the tantrums, he did not ‘throw himself around,’” the family members said. “His grandma Kayla had no issues when she would bathe him and Henry enjoyed bath time when he was with her. Our family does not believe in any way, shape, or form that Henry inflicted the injuries that caused his death on himself.”
