INDIANAPOLIS — Court documents shed new light on the details surrounding the death of a 1-year-old boy last week.
An autopsy for Dontrell Mcclung shows that the child died from head trauma consistent with child abuse that was from a “single, rage incident.”
On February 20, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers were called to the 6000 block of North Keystone Avenue for an unresponsive child. When officers arrived, they say an ambulance had already been flagged down and Mcclung had been pronounced dead at the scene.
Mcclung’s mother, Kira Fear, 19, and her boyfriend, Tyree Resnover, 21, have both been charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in death.
A probable cause affidavit released by the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday, details the investigation into Mcclung’s death and what detectives discovered.
In those court documents, Detective Christopher Craighill said he responded to the scene on North Keystone Avenue and Mcclung had “bruising from head to toe” when he was pronounced dead.
They later determined that the child had been injured at an Airbnb in the 6000 block of Primrose Avenue that Fear, Mcclung and Resnover had been staying at with Resnover’s young daughter.
In court documents, the couple said they were in the bedroom while the two children were lying in the living room when they heard Mcclung start screaming and crying. Fear and Resnover told police they thought Mcclung had fallen down the wooden stairs in the home.
Fear told detectives that she came out of the bedroom when she heard Mcclung cry and noticed he had vomited on himself. She said she gave him a bath and did not notice any marks at the time.
Resnover told detectives that he heard Mcclung start crying so he left to check on them. He said the child had a bloody lip and a bump on the “front and the back” of his forehead. He said Mcclung had also thrown up on his clothing and had to be cleaned and changed.
Resnover told detectives that he thought the Mcclung may have had a concussion tried to wake Fear, but she wouldn’t get up, so he put Mcclung back in front of the TV with a sippy cup and went back to bed.
In court documents, Craighill says Resnover showed detectives a video that was taken after Mcclung had been cleaned up and the child looked “punch drunk” and had a “faraway stare.”
Fear’s mother told detectives that the couple had been with her before leaving for Indianapolis and the child “was behaving fine and nothing was wrong with him.”
Detectives also interviewed Fear’s mother who said the couple had been at her home before leaving for Indianapolis. She said she gave Mcclung a bath before they left and did not notice any marks on his body and he “was behaving fine and nothing was wrong with him.”
In those court documents, Craighill describes the scene at the home on Primrose Avenue where Mcclung was reportedly injured. Detectives found a bloody rag in the trash, bloody clothes and bleached clothes in the washer. They also found blood downstairs on the carpet and a cushion on the floor that appeared to be stained with blood.
During Mcclung’s autopsy, Dr. John Cavanaugh told Craighill that the child had a compression fracture to the skull which was “from Child Abuse, and not from falling down the stairs.” Dr. Cavanaugh also told Craighill that the bruises on Mcclung’s legs were in the patters of fingers or knuckles and the trauma to his head was from “a single, rage incident.”
Dr. Cavanaugh ruled Mcclung’s death a homicide.
Both Fear and Resnover were arrested on February 21.
