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Did child neglect or abuse cause the death of a one year old baby girl?  That’s what Belmopan police are investigating after one-year-old St. Matthews Villager Janeeka Campbell was picked up by police yesterday in an unresponsive state.  Police were in the village when they were told that a small child was in urgent need of medical care. Police picked up the child and started rushing her to Belmopan’s Western Regional Hospital.  They transferred her to an ambulance along the way. But the one year old was pronounced dead on arrival at the Western Regional. 

What’s concerning is that she was found with bruises to various parts of her body. We are told she also appeared underweight. Â 

Tonight her father is detained and her mother was also questioned today.  Is it a case of criminal parental neglect?  Police don’t know much and they aren’t jumping to conclusions.  The officer commanding Belmopan told us what they have at this point:…

Sr. Supt. Howell Gillet - OC, Belmopan
"Last night which was Tuesday night sometime around 8 PM, our officers were patrolling in the village of St. Mathews when they encountered 2 people who were in distressed for the police's support to take a young child a female child to the Western Regional Hospital. We did just that and while we were doing so an ambulance who might have been called to the scene -- we stopped the ambulance and the child was placed in the ambulance in the emergency personnel care. The child was later pronounced dead on arrival at the Western Regional Hospital. In my view child might have been alive or else the ambulance would have not taken in the child. Our observation revealed that the child had bruises to the entire upper portions of the body; the back and front portions of the torso. There is nothing conclusive yet we are investigating it with intensity and with great scrutiny. There's information that suggests that the child based on the marks that we've seen, some of them have been previous marks on the body and some fresh marks. Post mortem will tell us what really caused the child's death. We are not casting any aspersions at this time but we're vigorously pursuing this case because it’s a very sad case to have a young child like this die and if the post mortem proves that the child died from injuries sustained then we will treat it as a murder."

Reporter
"Are you able to indicate in whose care the child was at the time?"

Sr. Supt. Howell Gillet - OC, Belmopan
"Well there's conflicting stories at this moment and that's why we have one of the parents in custody where continue to interview that persons. It's conflicting because people are saying one thing and then the parent we have in custody is saying another thing but we won't leave it like that. As a matter of fact as we speak officers out in the field, they are out canvasing the neighbourhood to see if neighbours might have seen or heard something that occurred."

Janeeka Campbell was one year and 11 months old.

The post mortem to determine the cause of death will be held tomorrow afternoon – and we’ll keep you posted.