A North Augusta woman has been charged following the brutal death of her newborn child, who died in October, before she was two months old.
Jordan Fowler, 21, was charged Dec. 14 with unlawful neglect of child. An arrest warrant says she placed baby Charlotte Fowler at unreasonable risk or harm or actually caused the harm by “forcibly squeezing and shaking the child.”
“The child suffered multiple right rib fractures and other injuries which were identified during an autopsy as being in various stages of healing,” the warrant says. “(Fowler) had custody and/or charge of the minor child at the times these injuries occurred and (is) believed to have caused these injuries.”
Around 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 15, deputies responded to the suspect’s home at 5 Rita Court for a dead body, a report says. That is where the child’s great-grandmother was performing CPR on the baby, but officers observed the child to be cold to the touch and deceased.
Fowler told deputies that she checked on her daughter at 9 a.m. while Charlotte was in her crib sleeping. The mother then went to sleep as well on the bed beside the crib. She said she woke up at 1 p.m. and checked on the baby again and she was unresponsive. She then called her grandmother and then 911.
Coroner Darryl Ables said the death is being investigated as a homicide. On Tuesday, he sent out a press release, saying preliminary investigation has determined Charlotte’s death to be a homicide, but the final cause of her death is still under investigation.
The child was laid to rest on Oct. 21. Fowler is being held without bond at the Aiken County Detention Center.
