Man brings body to hospital in trash bag after baby dies in car, Virginia cops say
An 11-month-old died while sitting for six hours in a car, and authorities learned of the tragedy when someone brought her body to a hospital in a trash bag, according to the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office in Virginia.
The child, named Miracle, died Tuesday, Sept. 12, in the driveway of a Yorktown home, and she was accompanied by a dog that also died, Sheriff Ron Montgomery said at a news conference.
Her caretaker at the time was 40-year-old Kristen Danielle Graham, and she has been charged with one felony count of child neglect and one misdemeanor count of animal cruelty, Montgomery said.
Investigators say the girl’s death was revealed when a man in his 80s walked into the emergency room of a Newport News hospital and “announced to the emergency room staff that he had a deceased child in the back of his vehicle.”
“That vehicle was parked right at the entrance of the emergency room doors,” the sheriff said.
“The emergency room personnel ... then went outside to the car and in the rear hatch of the vehicle they observed a black plastic trash bag and inside that black plastic trash bag they discovered a deceased 11-month-old child.”
An investigation revealed the baby’s 17-year-old mother would “periodically” leave her in the care of Graham, “sometimes for weeks at a time,” officials said.
Graham had been taking care of the girl for about two days when she took her and a small dog along for an errand at 1 a.m. Tuesday. She returned home around 8 a.m., officials said.
“Once she got home, she rolled the windows up on the car, turned the car off, (and) left the dog and the child in the vehicle,” Montgomery said.
“Around 2 to 2:30 p.m. ... she was awakened by a phone call, went outside to then check on the child, who was at that point deceased. The child was brought into the house.”
It was then that a man put the girl’s body in a trash bag and took her to Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital, and doctors agreed she was deceased, officials said.
An autopsy is being performed to determine the cause of death, which could result in additional charges, officials said.
The identity of the man who took the child to the hospital was not released.
Yorktown is about 60 miles southeast of Richmond.
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