1. CHILD FATALITY
Lt. Kenneth Landwehr
Wichita Police Department
Homicide Section

2. Multidisciplinary Team
• Homicide Unit
• EMCU
• SRS
• District Attorneys Office

3. Child Fatalities
• Natural Deaths
• Accidents
• Suicides
• Homicides
• Undetermined

4. Causes of Fatalities
Distinguishing between accidental
and inflicted injuries

5. Definitions
 An accident is an event that occurs
incidentally, casually or by chance
 An abusive inflicted injury is one
that occurs voluntarily and under
conscious control
 Inflicted injuries may be intentional
or unintentional

6. Accidental or NOT
• Motor Vehicle
• Drowning
• Poisoning
• Fire
• Firearms
• Exposure
• Falls
• Choking
• Suffocation
• Strangulation

7. Abusive Inflicted Injury
• Intentional
• Reckless
• Negligent/Neglectful
• Acute or Chronic

8. Law Enforcement
Protocol
 Homicide Unit responds to all child
deaths with victims under the age of 6
 Homicide also responds to victims
with serious/ life threatening injuries
 Traffic cases excluded
 All cases reported to State Child Death
Review Board

9. Law Enforcement Response
 To a hospital
 To the scene
 Separate Witnesses
 Notification of Detectives
 Neighborhood
 Special problems due to dynamics

10. Detective Response
 Identify and Secure potential
scenes (could be multiple)
 Physical exam of baby
 Processing of scene(s)/Consent or
Search Warrant
 Interviews with medical staff/EMS

11. Detective Response
 Obtain Family and medical history of child-
Releases or Subpoenas
 Obtain DNA samples /Consent or Search
Warrant
 Interviews with parents/caregivers
 Interview witnesses
 Interview siblings / family

12. Detective Response
• Attend Autopsy
• Suspect Interrogation
• Review Investigation with District
Attorney Felony Review Team
• Follow up Investigation

13. CSI Response
 Boundaries of Scene
 Preservation of Scene and Evidence
 Documentation of Scene and Body
 Photographs, Measurements, Diagrams
 Collection of Evidence
 Chain of Custody

14. Evidence Last Meal dishes
bottles
 Meds,drugs poison
 Bedding
 Clothing/diaper
 Blood,saliva,vomit,
urine,feces
 Hair, fiber
 911 tape
 Latents
 Pattern
Instruments
 Weapons
 Documents
 Photos or videos
of child
 School records
 Phone records

15. Knowledge about Child
Development
Essential in Distinguishing
Accidental from
Inflicted injuries

16. Developmental Milestones
 Sitting up alone
 Rolls over
 Crawling/Up
 Walking alone
 Runs
 Toilet training
 4-10 words
 5-7 months
 6-7 months
 7-9 months
 8-13 months
 12-15 months
 22-36 months
 15-18 months

17. Fatal Falls
 You don’t CRUISE -You don’t BRUISE
 No significant injury-Fall < than 3
feet
 Fatal Outcome-Fall > than 2-3 stories
 Stairways do not usually result in life
threatening injuries

18. Separating Accidental from
Inflicted
• Age of victim?
• Is the history plausible?
• Does history change with changing
information given to caretaker?
• Does history change when related in
subsequent accounts by other family
members?

19. More Questions
• Are there non-familial witnesses to the event?
• Is the caretaker defensive, belligerent, hostile,
passive or unconcerned?
• Is the social situation in which the event
occurred a high-risk environment?
• Most importantly, what else could have
caused the observed injuries?

20. Histories Suspicious for
Abuse
 Delay in seeking medical attention
 Discrepant history
 Fractures in varying stages of healing
 Extremity plus skull fracture
 Intracranial injuries plus skull fracture

21. Head Injury
• Impulsive loading without impact
whiplash
• Struck by moving object causing head
acceleration
• Moving head strikes object
• Head compression vise
• Penetrating

22. SYMPTOMS
• Decreased
responsiveness
• Irritability
• Lethargy
• Limpness
• Convulsions
• Vomiting
• Low body
temperature
• Low heart rate
• Increased
breathing rate
• Coma with fixed
and dilated pupils
• Death

23. Shaken Baby Syndrome
Shaken Impact Syndrome
 Commonest cause of mortality and
long term disability due to physical
abuse
 Age range-newborn to 4 years
 Most occur before babies first
birthday
 Average age: 3-8 months of age

24. SBS/ SIS
 Inconsolable crying is usual trigger
mechanism
 Perpetrator grabs infant by the thorax,
upper arms or neck, and violently
shakes the baby
 Time of shaking-- 5-20 seconds

25. Shaken Baby Intracranial
Injury
• Bridging veins from the brain to the dura
tear open and bleed, creating subdural
hemotoma and subarachnoid hemorrhages
• Brain strikes the inner skull, causing direct
trauma to the brain and swelling

26. Other Injuries of SBS
• Most significant are the retinal and
petechial hemorrhages
• Skull fractures with sufficient impact
• Posterior rib fractures reflect chest
compression during shaking
• Bruising of the head, face, chest, and
other areas or other fractures

27. Head Trauma History
 Symptoms will begin immediately
 LUCID INTERVAL –A period of
unconsciousness followed by a
period of apparent recovery (0nly
in adults and adolescents, Never
documented in a child)

28. Abdominal Injuries
 Organs most Frequently injured
Small Intestine, Liver, Pancreas
 May not produce dramatic signs or
symptoms Quickly
 Liver damage most likely Blunt
Uppercut

29. Thoracic Injuries
 Rib cage
 Internal Organs-heart,lungs, blood
vessels,nerves,esophagus, trachea,
diaphragm
 Types of Force: Direct impact
Penetration,Compressions

30. Likely Inflicted Thoracic
Injury
• Posterior Rib Fracture
• Perforation of the posterior
pharynx or upper esophagus
• Chylothorax-Allows Milky Chyle to
leak into thoracic cavity

31. Skeletal Injury
• Humeral – common in abuse
• Femoral-if accidental either motor
vehicle crash or major blunt trauma
• Clavicular –uncommon under 3yrs,can
result from shaking
• Vertebral-due to compression of
vertebral bodies during shaking

32. Suspicious Fractures
• Metaphyseal in children
under 2yrs(disc like or
bucket handle)
• Posterior rib
• Medial or lateral
clavicular
• Scapular
• Sternum
• Skull
• Multiple
• Bilateral(longbones
on both sides)
• Repetitive(in same
child)
• Fractures in hands or
feet

33. Suffocation
• Hypoxia-lack of oxygen
• Minimal or no external or internal
trauma Petechial hemorrhages may
or may not be present
• Overlaying
• Wedging

34. Poisonings
• Administration of Toxic agents
• Salt Poisoning
• Most Toxic screens miss

35. Strangulation
 Manual may have some external marks,
fingerpad bruises,crescent abrasions
 Ligature may see marks,abrasions, or
bruises from instrument
 Broken Hyoid, Thyroid,Crioids bone and
cartilage
 Internal bleeding
 Petechial hemorrhages

36. BURNS
• IMMERSION BURNS
• DRY CONTACT BURNS
• CHEMICAL BURNS

37. IMMERSION BURNS
 Uniformity of the burn
 Sparing of skin surface by skin folds
 Sharply demarcated margins of the burn
 Most often involve the upper and lower
extremities and the buttocks

38. DRY CONTACT BURNS
• Uniform in degree
• Often involve exposed surfaces
of the body (arms, legs, hands,
and feet)
• Associated with discrepant
histories

39. CHEMICAL BURNS
 Associated with acid or alkali
substances
 May involve the skin or the
internal organs, particularly the
mouth, throat, esophagus.

40. Pattern Burns
• Conforms to heating elements (Irons,
grills, curling irons, cigarette lighters,
or stove heating elements)
• May be accidental or inflicted
• Factors: age of child, location of
burn, history

41. Neglect
Failure to meet child’s needs
food, shelter,clothing,
medical care,safekeeping

42. Prosecution
• Negligent Supervision
• Medical Neglect
• Reckless Acts
• Intentional Acts

43. Criminal Charges
 1ST
Pre-meditated or Felony Murder
 2ND
Intentional or Reckless
 Voluntary Manslaughter
 Involuntary Manslaughter- reckless or
commission of Misdemeanor
 Abuse of Child, Endangering a Child
Abandonment or other persons crimes

44. Prosecution Problems
 Parent as Killer
 Invisible Trauma
 Establishing Mens
Rea (State of
Mind)
 Multiple Killers
 Time of Injury
 Mechanism of
Injury
 Poor Investigation
 Public Perception

45. Successful Investigation
and Prosecution
• Timely Response
• Coordinated Response
• Careful and Complete
Documentation
• Well trained investigators and
prosecutors

46. Toshua A Pool 3mo 5-17-2004 Multiple closed head wounds

47. Anthony Melton 18 WM
Boyfriend of Mom not the father
Plead to 2nd Intentional and two
Aggravated batteries

48. Left Skate South
at 8:00 PM on
June 9, 2006
Chelsea Brooks 14

50. Everett Gentry 17
Gentry will Plead Guilty to first degree murder

51. Theodore Burnett 49
Burnett will be found guilty of
Capital Murder sentenced to
50 years

52. Elgin Ray Robinson 20
Robinson found guilty of Capital Murder
sentenced to 50 years