NEWS
When a second child from the same Dayton home - 2-year-old Alexis Marshall - died three days later, police again found no foul play.
Then, on Christmas Eve, 3-year-old Danatta Moreland died.
"With the first death, there was no suspicion," said Ken Betz, director of the coroner's office. "With the second death, now there's suspicion. But we were still waiting for the autopsy results. Then the third one occurred."
The three deaths proved one of the most difficult cases for Dr. James Davis, Montgomery County coroner, who Wednesday ruled that the children were killed by suffocation or asphyxiation.
Dayton police are now investigating three homicides.
Family members had said the first two suffered from pulmonary problems and DaJainae had been treated for encephalitis - swelling of the brain - before she died. The third child, their lawyers suggested, bumped heads with another child.
The coroner's office found no evidence of concussions, encephalitis or environmental poisoning.
The autopsies showed no obvious reason for death.
So how did they die?
Suffocation or asphyxiation could be caused from smothering with a pillow or plastic bag, strangulation or by covering the mouth and nose, Betz said.
If the case involved an adult, investigators often find signs of a struggle, bleeding in the eye area or bruises on the neck or chest.
But it's different with young children, who may not offer much resistance, especially if the attack came while they were sleeping.
"With children you talk about gentle homicide," Betz explained. "You hold the nose or put a pillow over the face. What response will you get? None."
Officials hinted at other evidence.
"The results of the autopsy were negative but I'm not saying the results of the histology were negative," said Betz, referring to a microscopic examination of tissues.
"We did not see marks around their necks," Davis said. "But I can't comment on any of the other things we saw."
John Rion, attorney for Phillip and Regina Moreland, caregivers for the children at 633 Homewood Ave. is skeptical.
"I think the coroner's opinion is simply an opinion, his best guess," said Rion.
"It's almost as though he listed all the possibilities and eliminated them for various reasons," Rion said. "A more profound approach would be to make a finding, rather than to assess what isn't."
In smothering cases, Rion said. "I look for debris in the lungs, gases from plastic, feather from a pillow, microscopic debris . . . I don't think it's there."
After Danatta's death Dec. 24, the remaining four children at the Homewood Avenue house were placed in foster care, and then with another relative.
Rion plans to seek their return at a March 4 hearing in Montgomery County Juvenile Court.
With the baffling case now in the hands of police, Davis expressed some doubts about the outcome.
"I think we'll be able to identify (the perpetrator)," the veteran coroner said. "But I'm not sure we'll get them indicted or convicted. Maybe we can get some help for them."
* CONTACT Wendy Hundley at 225-2420 or e-mail her at wendy_hundley@coxohio.com