McKenzie Terwell died from blood loss due to extensive soft tissue trauma, and her death was ruled an accident, according to Montgomery County Coroner Dr. Kent Harshbarger. Dayton Police said the baby was attacked by a dog.
The Dayton Daily News on Wednesday obtained an affidavit written by Dayton Police Detective Karina Sulek seeking permission to search and collect evidence in the case. An attempt to reach Terwell and Shoup for this story was unsuccessful Wednesday.
Sulek wrote when officers arrived at the home on the 100 block of Vermont Avenue on Jan. 9, the baby’s father, Parker Terwell, was on the front porch with the baby’s remains.
“Mr. Terwell said he just arrived home, and his girlfriend and mother of the child, Mary Shoup, was asleep on the living room sofa,” the affidavit in the search warrant requests says. “Mr. Terwell informed officers that Ms. Shoup is on prescription medication.”
Prescriptions were seen next to the sofa, according to the affidavit, and Shoup was prescribed them.
“The prescriptions included Alprazolam, Bupropion and Sertalian, Known side effects of these prescriptions are: drowsiness, cognitive dysfunction and insomnia,” the affidavit says.
Also, the affidavit says officers were told by Parker Terwell that he had thrown a marijuana bong in the kitchen trashcan before police arrived.
The affidavit said the baby was badly injured when officers arrived.
The information in the search warrant seems to support what was said during a 9-1-1 call alerting authorities that the baby had died. In that call, Parker Terwell tells a dispatcher that he just got home from work and he found his baby dead on the floor alone.
“She’s cold. She’s gone,” Parker Terwell said while crying.
He tells the dispatcher that McKenzie’s mother was supposed to be watching her.
No funeral services for McKenzie had been publicized by Wednesday afternoon.
The search warrant says officers collected evidence at the home when they searched it Friday. The evidence included photographs, suspected human remains, a bong, medications, vials of suspected alcohol, DNA swabs and tin plate residue.
It was returned on Monday, according to the search warrant.
Police have not said whether any charges are pending in the investigation, however, the search warrant lists endangering children as a possible charge.
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