Baby "staying" at dad's house dies; had bruises and internal injuries (Chester County, South Carolina)

The details in this case are far from clear. The mom says that the baby was "staying" at the home of UNNAMED DAD and Dad's mother at the time she was injured. In fact, they apparently kept the baby there overnight before the mom was able to retrieve the baby and take her to the hospital where the baby subsequently died. So it is evident that the parents did not live together; in fact, Mom lived in another county. Whether this was an informal visitation arrangement or a formal court-ordered arrangement is not specified.

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/20779119/detail.html

S.C. Baby’s Death Ruled Suspicious
To contact the reporter, e-mail Greg Suskin.
Posted: 5:15 pm EDT September 7, 2009
Updated: 5:33 pm EDT September 7, 2009

CHESTER COUNTY, S.C. -- A baby died 11 days before her first birthday at Carolinas Medical Center after she was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit with bruises and internal injuries.

York County Coroner Sabrina Gast, who will examine the girl on Tuesday, identified her as 11-month-old Xymerra Evans.

Chester County sheriff's deputies said the baby's mother drove her to Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill on Friday afternoon. Doctors there transferred her to CMC, where it was discovered she had bruises on her chest and back.

The baby's grandmother, Joann Stroud, was at the hospital Saturday trying to see her, but wasn't allowed to her bedside.

"They wouldn't tell us nothing," Stroud said.

She said her son, the baby's father, was very upset.

"He was crying the whole time he was there. As he was trying to talk to the family, he was crying," she said.

Stroud lives with her son on Greene Street in Richburg. That's where the child's mother told detectives that the baby was staying at the time.

Stroud told Eyewitness News she had never seen the little girl until just two months ago, and only found out this summer that her son had another child.

Major Bill Murphy with the Chester County Sheriff's Office said investigators can't say much about the case yet.

"We're waiting on the autopsy results before we know where we're going to go with this," he said.
Chester County Coroner Terry Tinker said several agencies could have a hand in investigating the girl's death because she spent the night in Chester County before being taken to the hospital, but the child's mother is from Chesterfield County, according to family members.

"We're not even sure yet who's going to investigate this," Tinker said. "I just don't have any information right now."

Officials in York County will do an autopsy Tuesday morning.

Stroud has a large family and said she can't believe anyone close to her would intentionally hurt a child.

"I have 17 grandchildren altogether, and I don't have a grandchild nowhere with a bruise on them, physical or in no kind of way," she said.