Deputies Probing Baby’s Death as Possible Homicide

Sheriff’s investigators said Friday they are handling the death of a 3-month-old girl, who apparently died of asphyxiation, as a possible homicide.

The girl, Ashley June Perkins, was pronounced dead Thursday at Saddleback Community Hospital after her 16-year-old mother called 911 from a store phone to say that her child had stopped breathing.

Doctors found bruises on the infant’s body, leading investigators to declare the death “suspicious,” Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson said.

Preliminary autopsy results Friday indicated that Ashley died of asphyxiation. The autopsy revealed no signs of sexual abuse. Further tests are being conducted, Olson said.

Investigators spent Thursday interviewing Perkins and her 34-year-old live-in boyfriend, who apparently performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the infant while the mother ran down the street to call for help, Olson said.

The couple, who live in the 20000 block of Trabuco Oaks Drive, have no phone at their residence, Olson said.

“We really don’t know what happened,” said Perkins’ boyfriend, who declined to identify himself. “She had been having an indigestion problem, you know, with some very hard burping.”

“The last night she started grunting very hard, but couldn’t seem to go to the bathroom, kind of like she had the runs but couldn’t go,” he said. The mother declined comment.