Christopher Churchill
15 months old
Beaten to death
Christopher was burned and
beaten to death by a friend of his mother's, Harold Jay Trotter. When Christopher
was taken to the hospital he had no pulse or respiration and he was showing
the first signs of rigamortis. There was a pattern burn of seven lines
stretching from his forehead to the tip of his nose and fresh bruises on
his face and body and burns on his forearms and one wrist. The bruises
were the result of Trotter beating him and the burns came from Trotter
holding Christopher's face to the grate of a wall mounted heater that could
reach temperatures as high as 180 degrees.
Christopher had been hospitalized
two weeks prior to his death when he was taken to the doctor for sores
in his mouth. The doctor noticed the bruises and notified social services
and scheduled a follow-up visit in two weeks.
However the next time he
saw Christopher was in the emergency room, dead. Christopher's mother,
Tammy Churchill had been tried and acquitted of a previous child abuse
charge two years prior and had given one child up for adoption and two
other children were in the custody of other people
. Both the mother and boyfriend
have been charged with two counts of child abuse and manslaughter.
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