Over this past summer, we included posts about a Colorado couple who was suspected to be responsible for a young girl’s homicide. Based on reports, the girl died after suffering child abuse on the part of her father, his girlfriend or both. Investigation into the case began after workers arrived at the couple’s former townhouse in order to work some maintenance and found the girl’s body buried beneath the home, as if someone was trying to hide her.
The body was discovered in May, but police did not find the couple now charged with the victim’s homicide until July. Now that both the father and his girlfriend are in custody and are available to answer investigators’ questions, it sounds like the court has a serious case of he said she said on its hands, with little evidence to lead to a sound case against either party.
Both parties have been charged with the girl’s homicide; the girlfriend, 29, faces first-degree murder charges, while the father, 30, is charged with second-degree murder. The Colorado homicide trial began last week, and the first goal was to determine whether either case was strong enough to merit that the charges against the defendants stand and be tried in a court of law.
Sources report that the autopsy performed on the victim’s body produced no evidence that obviously incriminated one suspect over the other. The accused father in the case has told police that his girlfriend severely injured his daughter while he was out of the house. He says that when he suggested calling for emergency help, his girlfriend rejected the idea because she didn’t want to involve authorities.
The father allegedly did as his girlfriend wished by not calling police, which is why he now is at risk of being charged with his daughter’s murder. But the girlfriend’s lawyer challenges the tactic of trying to make her out to be the alpha dog who is responsible for the fatal domestic violence.
Last week’s hearing included the father’s lawyer admitting that beyond his client’s testimony, there is no actual evidence that the girlfriend hurt the girl. A family member of the father has also proved to authorities that the father abused the victim in the past. She reportedly has pictures to prove it, and that could potentially help the girlfriend’s cause regarding how the court views her and whether it follows through with charging her with the more serious charge of first-degree murder.
Source
Colorado Springs Gazette: “Pair blames each other in death of monument child,” John C. Ensslin, 29 Oct. 2010