A 10-month-old baby is dead and the baby’s father is charged with his murder. Bail for Casey Ladd was set at $1 million. While officials and family wait for autopsy results, two other children who live in the home … ages 2 and 3 … are being evaluated by child services.
The baby’s mother told WSBT she was not home when the child stopped breathing Monday. Before she left home, the baby was congested but nothing seemed out of the ordinary, she said.
Just after 10:30 a.m. Monday, police and medics were called to Ladd’s apartment in Watervliet because the baby wasn’t breathing. The baby was taken to Lakeland Hospital in Watervliet and then airlifted to Bronson Hospital in Kalamazoo. The boy died there soon after arriving.
Emergency room doctors said the boy’s injuries were consistent with abuse.
Casey Ladd was arrested and first charged with first degree child abuse.
After Ladd’s son died, a charge of homicide-felony murder was added, according to a Berrien County Sheriff’s Department news release issued late Tuesday afternoon.
The autopsy report will not be expected to be completed for a few weeks as it may take that long to analyze toxicology results, police said. An opinion of the manner of death will be determined within the medical examiner’s report.
