COLUMBUS, Ohio — A grand jury indicted a Whitehall mother on multiple charges, including murder, in the death of her nine-month-old baby as well as injuries suffered by her nearly two-year-old child.
The incident happened in late September on Beechbank Road in Whitehall.
"It's horrible, it's tragic, it's absolutely awful,” Whitehall Police Deputy Chief Dan Kelso said.
Whitehall police officers responded to a home on Beechbank Road on Sept. 23 for a report of an unresponsive child. Officers performed CPR until the child was taken to Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Nine-month-old A’Riyah Williams did not survive her injuries.
"That's where the investigation started,” Kelso said.
First responders also discovered injuries on the baby’s nearly two-year-old sister.
"The officers at the scene noticed visible bruising, visible marks on the children that weren't consistent with accidents or falls,” Kelso said.
The mother of the children, 21-year-old Charity Dreyer, was originally arrested and held in jail on charges connected to the abuse of the nearly 2-year-old child. It took about a month for Dreyer to be indicted by a grand jury.
Kelso said homicide investigations like this can sometimes take time before a murder charge can be applied.
"You have to have the entire case together before you're gonna present that to a grand jury,” Kelso said.
The coroner first needed to officially rule the infant’s manner of death as a homicide before the murder charge could be applied. Then, Kelso said they needed to gather hospital records, any prior criminal records and interview witnesses.
"Tracking down witnesses to interview, that's not always easy. People start disappearing once you do an investigation,” Kelso said.
The coroner’s report released last week revealed the baby’s death was a homicide caused by blunt-force head injuries. The report also noted days-old blunt force abdominal trauma, bruises on her face and several respiratory viruses, including COVID-19.
"This is a preventable homicide, and I say that because people knew. Somebody knew something's going on with this child and mother, this didn't just happen out of the blue,” Kelso said.
Kelso hopes this story serves as a message to the community about why it’s so important if you see something to speak up, because it could be a matter of life or death.
"If you have something like this going on in your life, if you know somebody that's not treating a child correctly, you know what to do, you know who to call, we're here,” Kelso said.
Dreyer is expected to be arraigned at the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas on Monday.