Wilmington police investigating toddler's death
A Wilmington toddler hospitalized with heavy bruising and brain injuries died late Friday night, after medical staff removed life-support equipment that had sustained her for several days.
Wilmington police said their probe of the traumatic injuries suffered by 1½-year-old A'Niah Davila-Torres is now a "death investigation," though the precise cause of her injuries has not been officially determined.
A medical examiner photographed the baby's injuries for evidence in the investigation Friday night before she was removed from life-support at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Rockland about 11 p.m. She died a short time later, according to her family.
The investigation began Tuesday, when police were alerted by staff of St. Francis Hospital in Wilmington, as required by law, after the severely injured baby arrived, Cpl. Mark Ivey told The News Journal on Saturday. The baby was taken there by a daycare provider and her boyfriend.
The baby later was transferred to the children's hospital in Rockland.
Although the family blames the daycare provider, Ivey said "it's way too early" to say who is responsible for the child's injuries.
Police released no additional information Saturday about the investigation.
The baby's mother, Zinnia Davila, 22, said A'Niah was injured while in a state-licensed daycare operated by a woman who lives on Apple Street in Southbridge. Davila said she paid her with state purchase-of-care vouchers.
But Andrea Wojcik of the state Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families on Saturday told The News Journal by email that the woman Davila identified "was not licensed as a child care provider."
Under some limited circumstances, however, unlicensed providers may be approved for payment with state purchase of care, according to the state Department of Health and Social Services website, but The News Journal could not be determine Saturday if Davila's child care provider was one of them.
Wojcik said she could not provide any additional details about the case because of "the pending criminal investigation."
The provider could not be reached for comment.
Davila said she asked police to investigate her daughter's injuries, giving them her cellphones with pictures of A'Niah uninjured and in good health before she dropped her off at daycare Tuesday with her 2½-year-old son, Aston.
She told The News Journal from the children's hospital Friday night that tests determined her daughter's injuries had cut off the blood flow to her head, leaving her brain-dead. Doctors told her they concluded the injuries resulted from "physical abuse," Davila said.
The provider tended both children since starting her in-home daycare shortly after Christmas 2013, Davila said. She previously took care of them at a larger daycare center on Lancaster Avenue, she said. The woman has no other daycare children, but has three of her own, from elementary school through early teens, she said.
Davila said the woman told her she put A'Niah down for a nap about noon and her boyfriend arrived home shortly thereafter, found the baby "slumped on the couch," then told her they needed to take her to the hospital, Davila said.
Contact robin brown at (302) 324-2856 or rbrown@delawareonline.com. Find her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @rbrowndelaware.
HOW TO HELP
Family members of A'Niah Davila-Torres are accepting donations toward her medical and funeral expenses at http://www.gofundme.com/chb23g