RIP LILY

Nov 03, 2008 01:52

This is what I have been dealing with for the last 4 days now. I do not know just how much more I can take. My life long friends April and Steven have been forced to deal with something no parent should ever have to deal with, the murder of their beautiful 15 month old baby girl, Lily. She was an Angel in life, just as she is now, but it hurts so damn bad. I now firmly believe that there is no God. In case anyone else can stomach the details of the murderers confession to the sheriff, I have copied the local article here. I warn you it is horrible. Although, the story is not quite correct, April and Steven left the house well after 8pm. It seems that this fact is important to her and so I add it. I hope that Trey (thats what we all called him) gets what he truly deserves and soon.

Babysitter Charged in Girl's Death

By Shoshana Walter
THE LEDGER

Published: Friday, October 31, 2008 at 11:19 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, October 31, 2008 at 11:23 p.m.
LAKELAND | A 24-year-old man has been charged with manslaughter after the 15-month-old he was babysitting was pronounced dead, the Sheriff’s Office said Friday night.

Gordon Finley Dugger III of Lakeland was arrested Friday and charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child, a first-degree felony.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, Dugger was babysitting 15-month-old Lily Edwards on Thursday night while her parents, family friends with whom he was living, were out for the evening.

Steven and April Edwards left their Hamilton Road home about 7 p.m. About 1:30 a.m., the baby began to cry and Dugger could not calm her, so he began bouncing her on his knee and throwing her into the air.

At one point, he later told detectives, he threw her about 5½ feet into the air and she landed on the back of her head, knocking her unconscious, the Sheriff’s Office said.

He began shaking her to get her to wake up. When that did not work, he began to hit the baby on the back of the head, hitting progressively harder, in total about 10 times. When he still could not revive Lily, he called emergency services, the Sheriff’s Office said.

At the time, Dugger told detectives the baby had been fine when he’d put her to bed, but that when he checked on her about 2 a.m., she was unresponsive. He also told detectives he tried CPR before calling authorities, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Lily was taken to Lakeland Regional Medical Center where she was pronounced dead about 2:45 a.m. The Medical Examiner’s Office then determined the baby had died of head trauma, and declared the death a homicide.

Dugger had been living with the Edwards family since July and had babysat for the couple before, the Sheriff’s Office said.

He was booked into Polk County Jail late Friday night.
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