A decorated Christmas tree and unopened gifts sat waiting for four youngsters who were removed Dec. 24, after a third suspicious Moreland family death. And there in the living room Phillip Moreland, the hard-working head of the household, was dead at 42.
"He was the stability in that home, and the backbone of that family," said Betz, director of the Montgomery County Coroner's Office.
There was no apparent trauma to Moreland's body and an autopsy failed to reveal the cause of his death. Laboratory tests are being done as quickly as possible in hopes of finding an answer for Moreland's family by mid-week, Betz said.
Any sudden, unexplained death of a person of Moreland's age would automatically be investigated, Betz said, but Moreland's case gets extraordinary attention because of three earlier deaths in the family that have been ruled homicides.
Sources close to the investigation said Phillip Moreland didn't appear to be a suspect in the deaths of DaJainae Phillips, 1, Alexis Marshall, 2, and Danatta Moreland, 3. The girls' deaths, in a seven-week period late last year, were ruled homicides by suffocation or asphyxiation last month, No one has been charged.
Officials wouldn't give a time of death for Phillip Moreland, but Attorney Jon Paul Rion, who represents the Moreland family, said Moreland's wife Regina, 38, talked to her husband on the phone around 2 a.m. Friday and detected nothing unusual. She found him dead around 10:25 a.m., when she returned home from an overnight stay at a relative's house, Rion said.
On a tape recording of a Dayton Fire Department 911 call, a panicked woman, who apparently accompanied Mrs. Moreland to the house, shouts, "My daddy ain't breathing! ... He's on the couch."
Hysterical screaming in the background makes much of the recording unintelligible, but the caller's few discernible pleas are heart-wrenching: "My daddy's dead! ... Mama, get my daddy up, please! ... I can't move my daddy, I can't move my daddy!" Finally, she implores the dispatcher, "Please help me, please help me!"
Rion believes the pressure of the last four months was a factor in Moreland's death.
"Phillip was a fighter, a man who was concerned about his children and wanted them home," Rion said. "That would have caused some stress."
Phillip Moreland's death came two days after the family won a partial victory in their battle to get the four remaining children, aged 6 to 11, returned to them. Montgomery County Juvenile Judge Michael Murphy granted the parents unrestricted rights to visit the children, who are staying with their maternal grandmother. But the family was facing a March 23 court appearance, where prosecutors and child-welfare advocates intended to fight the unrestricted visits.
Barry Galen, a lawyer appointed to represent the children's interests, gave permission for Mrs. Moreland to visit the children after school on Friday and tell them about their father's death.
Beside facing tragedies in his family, Moreland was constantly working, sources said. He held two full-time jobs, one with General Motors and another with USAir.
Rion said Moreland had a history of heart problems and was taking medication for that condition. He also said that in the days before Moreland's death, he had told family members about chest pain and numbness in his arms, symptoms similar to those suffered by heart-attack victims.
Sources confirmed that some prescription medicine was found near Moreland's body but they were unable to say whether it had a role in his death.
"There are indications it could be completely natural causes," Rion said. "He might have had a heart attack, or it could be something in the house - in the water, in the air, in the paint, in the carpet ... We don't know."
Tests have been done on substances in the house, but Rion said more tests are being ordered.
By noon, as police and coroner's investigators worked inside the Morelands' residence, about two dozen family members gathered outside the modest blue house. Some were angry, others impatient and almost all were tearful.
"They have a very large family, and a lot of people are helping them out in this crisis situation," said Rion, who arrived within an hour of the discovery of Moreland's body.
Willie Marshall, Phillip Moreland's uncle and also pastor of Zubulun Baptist Church where Mrs. Moreland and the children worship, said it was pathetic to see Mrs. Moreland "standing out in the street as a spectator, waiting for them to take away the body."
After removing several brown paper bags of evidence, some pillows and some couch cushions, coroner's staff removed Moreland's body at about 1:10 p.m.
Marshall said he understood authorities have to do their jobs, and he's been trying to impress that upon the family.
"With four deaths, somebody's got to find out what's causing them," he said.
Marshall said the 100-member congregation has been inquisitive and also hurt by the tragedies that hurt the Morelands. Phillip Moreland felt strongly that he was being "singled out" and that some people had unfairly judged him and assumed he had done something wrong.
"He felt that very deeply," Marshall said. "All the pressure on Phil has been more than he could stand. "I don't know what the coroner is going to say about what killed Phil, but I know it had something to do with the pressure of public opinion, of having his children die and having the other ones taken away. That much I know."
CREDIT: WALLY NELSON/DAYTON DAILY NEWS
2. Phillip Moreland
* CONTACT Janice Morse at 225-2220; or e-mail her at
janice_morse@coxohio.com
* STAFF WRITER Rob Modic contributed to this story.