Police arrest Indiana parents after 6-week-old infant suffocated to death in 2022
04/19/2023 12:20 pm PDT
LAFAYETTE, Ind. (TCD) -- Prosecutors have charged the parents of a 6-week-old infant who was found deceased in the summer of 2022.
According to a news release from the Lafayette Police Department, on July 19, 2022, at approximately 7:30 a.m., officers responded to a report of an unresponsive 6-week-old child on Shoshone Drive, and first responders pronounced the victim dead at the scene. She was identified as Cheeyanna McKamey, the Lafayette Journal & Courier reports.
The victim’s father, 39-year-old Erik McKamey, reportedly told authorities that at around 2 a.m. on July 19, 2022, he changed his daughter’s diaper before feeding and burping her. Then, McKamey, Cheeyanna, and the victim’s mother, 31-year-old Tena Wood, allegedly laid down together on a futon. In the morning, McKamey and Wood reportedly found their daughter unresponsive. They attempted CPR but were unsuccessful.
According to the Lafayette Journal & Courier, an autopsy report revealed the infant died from positional asphyxia. She also reportedly had fentanyl in her blood.
On April 18, nearly eight months after the victim’s death, police arrested Wood and McKamey, and they were booked into the Tippecanoe County Jail. Court records show they each face charges of neglect of a dependent causing death and neglect of a dependent by placing the dependent in a situation that endangered its life.
Prosecutors are reportedly seeking habitual offender charges against the parents due to previous felony convictions.
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