Mother fractures her baby's skull as punishment for crying

Mother accused of abusing infant
2-month-old's skull fractured
Adams, Harold J. Louisville Courier-Journal, March 3, 2006, pg. B3.

CAMPBELLSBURG, Ind. A 21-year-old woman with three children under a year old has been accused of fracturing the skull of one of her 2-month-old twins because he wouldn't stop crying.

The mother, Lacey Edwards, was arrested Tuesday and charged with battery and neglect of a dependent, both felonies punishable by six to 20 years in prison. She is in the Washington County Jail on $50,000 cash bond.

Police said she told them she squeezed the baby's skull last week.

The incident took place Feb. 24 at Edwards' home on West Oak Street, according to an affidavit by Indiana State Police Detective Dave Mitchell that was filed in Washington Circuit Court.

Edwards told Mitchell that her three infants an 11-month-old and the twins were all crying while she was doing household chores, the affidavit says.

One of the twins, Michael Buskirk, continued to cry after the others stopped, Mitchell wrote. That frustrated and angered Edwards, "so she squeezed Michael's head with her hand" and felt the head cave in, Mitchell wrote.

The baby continued to cry, "so she squeezed his head a second time during which time she felt and heard his skull crack," the affidavit says.

The document says Edwards did not take Michael to the hospital or tell anyone about his injury for six or seven hours, until a visiting nurse arrived at the house and noticed the child's condition.

Washington County Prosecutor Cynthia Winkler said Michael was taken to Dunn Memorial Hospital in Bedford. Winkler did not have details about the baby's condition and the hospital did not have him listed on its public roster of patients yesterday.

Edwards is scheduled for trial on Sept. 5. Winkler said the other children are now in foster care.