Dad arrested in trauma death of 8-month-old daughter (Colorado Springs, Colorado)

Dad NICHOLAS PATRICK SMITH has been arrested on suspicion of 1st-degree murder in the head trauma death of his 8-month-old daughter. Not one word here about the baby's mother....

INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT

http://www.gazette.com/articles/police-130199-elise-daughter.html

Father arrested in baby's death

December 14, 2011 4:50 PM

JAKOB RODGERS
THE GAZETTE

An 8-month-old girl died early Wednesday morning, hours after Colorado Springs police suspect she was abused by her father.

Nicholas Patrick Smith, 22, was initially jailed on suspicion of child abuse after police were told about 2 p.m. Tuesday that his daughter, Elise Martinez-Mosley, was conscious and breathing, but not alert, according to the Colorado Springs Police Department.

Elise died at 1 a.m. Wednesday at a hospital, police said, and Smith was booked on suspicion of first-degree murder.

The girl suffered “significant” head trauma that was “non-accidental,” police said in a news release. No other details of the incident, including the location, have been released.

If the El Paso County Coroner rules Elise’s death a homicide, it would be the 31st this year in Colorado Springs. The city’s previous record for homicides in one year was 28. There were 24 homicides in Colorado Springs in 2010.

Smith’s arrest marks the sixth time this year that Colorado Springs police have arrested a caregiver in the death of a child 2-years-old or younger. Prosecutors later declined to file charges against one of those arrested.

One other child was killed this year in the Pikes Peak region. Gavin Paolini, 2, was fatally shot in May inside a Fountain house by his father during a murder-suicide.