Seven weeks after a 9-month-old boy died in Kansas City of injuries consistent with abuse, police have not made an arrest.
Giovanni Armon Carr, known as Gio, was hospitalized the night of June 15 and died the morning of June 20.
Gio arrived at the hospital with traumatic injuries to his brain, eyes and liver, according to Thea Harris, the baby’s great-aunt. Gio also had fractured ribs, a lacerated spleen and burns on his foot.
Shortly after Gio’s death, Harris said the baby had been in the care of his godmother on June 15 for close to seven hours before he was hospitalized.
The Kansas City Police Department responded to a home in the Blue Springs neighborhood after the baby’s godmother called an ambulance. The department opened a suspicious death investigation after detectives were notified June 20 that Gio had died.
On Thursday, police declined to say whether any suspects have been identified. Police are waiting for the full report of a neuropathologist from a June 21 autopsy, according to Officer Alayna Gonzalez, a police spokeswoman.
Until results come back, Gonzalez does not expect the department to publicly identify additional persons of interest in Gio’s death, which is still classified as a suspicious death investigation.
“The results of that report will determine the course of the investigation as it continues,” Gonzalez said.
A police department spokesperson said in late June that the department was waiting on lab testing results before making an arrest in Gio’s death.
The department was unable to share an estimate of how long it expects testing to take.
Neuropathologists specialize in the nervous system, including the brain and spinal cord. Their involvement in autopsies helps determine the cause of death, often when it involves head trauma or degenerative disease,
A 2017 study published in Academic Forensic Pathology, a journal from the National Association of Medical Examiners Foundation, found that in children under 4, a full autopsy — including testing of the central nervous system — is generally required to determine cause of death.
A baby died of severe abuse last week in Kansas City. Why hasn’t someone been arrested?
The baby’s godmother had watched Gio before, but never on her own, Harris said. Armoni Carr, Gio’s mother, had asked the woman to watch her son so she could work her first shift at an Amazon fulfillment center.
The Missouri Department of Social Services has declined to answer questions about investigations into Gio’s death.
Funeral services for Gio were July 6. As Gio’s family members mourn his death, they have sought to grieve in private.
Source Agencies
