Woman Is Indicted in Step-Granddaughter’s Death

A San Marcos woman is scheduled to be arraigned today in Superior Court on charges of murder and child abuse in the death of her 13-month-old step-granddaughter, who died from “shaken infant syndrome” after having been in her care.

Donna Marie Kirk called 911 on Sept. 27 to report that young Erica Lynn Bihr was having difficulty breathing. The girl died three days later at Children’s Hospital and Health Center in San Diego.

Kirk, 38, told authorities the girl was injured when she fell out of a playpen onto the carpeted living-room floor of her home in the 900 block of Lower Lane.

Detectives from the child abuse unit of the Sheriff’s Department were “called by the hospital staff as a result of inconsistencies between Donna Kirk’s explanation of what happened and the injuries noted by the attending physician,” said Sgt. Glenn Revell of the Sheriff’s Department.

Detectives began their investigation soon after the child arrived at the hospital and used autopsy results to substantiate their case, Revell said.

The girl died “as a result of being shaken violently,” Revell said, adding that the child’s brain was swollen, a telltale sign of “shaken infant syndrome.”

“An infant in developmental stages suffers swelling of the brain as a result of rapid acceleration and deceleration of the skull,” he said. “And this can cause injury or death.”

Kirk was indicted Monday by the county grand jury. She was arrested Tuesday and is being held at County Jail in Vista in lieu of $100,000 bail, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

A grand jury indictment sends the case directly to Superior Court for arraignment, said prosecutor Eugenia Eyherabide.

Defense attorneys do not attend grand jury hearings, and Kirk will have one appointed at the arraignment, Eyherabide said.

Eyherabide said she is unsure what type of murder charges she will press for, but, since Kirk was indicted on first degree murder, her options range from first-degree murder to involuntary manslaughter.