Suspect Detained : Family Questioned in Death of Bruised Baby

Police were questioning the family of an 11-month-old girl whose badly bruised body was found Tuesday in their Santa Ana home.

An autopsy was pending to determine whether the baby girl was beaten to death, according to Santa Ana police, who are investigating the child’s death as a possible homicide. If death was the result of a beating, she would be the third child to have died of abuse in Orange County this year.

Santa Ana police said a suspect “has been detained” in connection with the infant’s death, but police declined to give further information Tuesday night, or to say whether the suspect was related to the child.

‘Complicated Investigation’

Meanwhile, authorities said the infant’s 5-year-old brother is being held in protective custody at the Orangewood Children’s Home after being treated for cuts to the mouth at Saint Joseph Hospital in Orange.

“It’s become a very complicated investigation,” said Santa Ana police spokeswoman Maureen Thomas, who said the parents and other relatives had been interviewed. She refused to identify them. Thomas said police would not know the cause of death until the autopsy results are available.

“I don’t know if it’s a homicide,” she said. “All we have at this point is really a dead body.”

The baby’s death comes at a time when reports of child abuse in Orange County have reached an all-time high. Reported cases of abuse for the year ending in July are up 8% over the previous 12-month period and up nearly 25% since the year before that, according to data compiled by the Orange County Child Abuse Registry.

Authorities said they believe the rise reflects both an increase in the actual number of children abused and increased reporting of suspected abuse due to growing public awareness of the problem.

Police were called to the Durant Court apartments at 7:45 a.m. Tuesday by a woman who told them her daughter was dead. When officers arrived at the large complex in the 1500 block of North Durant Street, they found the baby girl in a bedroom, not breathing, with “obvious signs of trauma to the head and body,” Thomas said.

Paramedics who were summoned pronounced the infant dead at the scene.

A neighbor interviewed Tuesday afternoon reported hearing the doors in the apartment where the baby lived being slammed Monday night, as though in anger. The neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said he sometimes heard a baby crying in the apartment but was never alarmed because the crying did not sound unusual.

Durant Court is a modern apartment complex built 14 months ago as part of a Santa Ana redevelopment program. It is home to 83 mostly middle-class families of all ethnic backgrounds.

No one was home Tuesday evening at the apartment where the child lived, and the parents could not be reached for comment. But on the patio were a child’s walker, plastic toys and an upturned mop, amid discarded ribbons that said, “Police line, do not cross.”

Through an open curtain, clothes, toys and articles of clothing could be seen strewn on the floor of the bedroom where the baby’s body was found.

“I can’t imagine anybody doing such harm to another human being, let alone a helpless baby,” said next-door neighbor Uriel Ortiz, 26, as he stroked his own 2-month-old daughter. “This is a nice, peaceful place.”

Authorities said a juvenile court hearing would be conducted, probably Thursday, to determine whether the 5-year-old boy should be returned to the custody of his parents or relatives.

Although Orange County reports of child abuse have jumped since 1985, the number of children who die of abuse each year has remained about the same.

Between 1985 and 1987, about 15,000 children were believed to have been abused, neglected or abandoned each year. The number of such reports rose to about 19,000 cases in 1988. Through August of this year, there have been 11,550 such reports.

Better Reporting

Nathan Nishimoto, program manager for emergency response services at the Orange County Social Services Agency, said the increase probably reflects better reporting by teachers, police, doctors, social workers--and even companies that process film--all of whom are required to notify authorities if they suspect abuse.

But he also blamed abuse of alcohol and drugs, familial stress and the growing number of parents who were themselves abused as children.

“It seems like people do it because they do not see the child as a human being,” Nishimoto said. “They dehumanize the kid, they objectify them until there are no emotions attached to the child. It just becomes an object they mistreat.”

The increase in reporting, however, would appear to be helping to keep down the number of children who actually die as the result of abuse.

Five children died of child abuse in Orange County in 1985, three in 1986, five in 1987, two in 1988, and two, not including Monday’s death, so far this year, Nishimoto said.

Those figures, though tragic, are among the lowest in the state, said William G. Steiner, executive director of the Orangewood Children’s Foundation and a former director of the home, which takes in 2,900 abused and neglected children each year.

“Fifteen years ago, we had 19 suspected child abuse deaths (each year) with a million fewer people in Orange County,” Steiner said. “Three this year is three too many. But the county has made some tremendous strides in protecting children over the last 15 years.”

Times staff writer Davan Maharaj contributed to this story.