ARIAH PHILLIPS - 6 Months - Louisville KY

Six month old baby's death now a homicide investigation

Feb 12, 2011 10:40 AM





LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - Detectives are
investigating the death of another young child. Six-month-old Ariah
Phillips died Monday shortly after her mother and her mother's boyfriend
took her to the hospital. Police are still trying to figure out who killed the little girl.
"Everybody's a person of interest until we
eliminate them," says Louisville Metro Police homicide commander, Lieutenant Barry Wilkerson.
What police know is that Ariah Phillips died Monday at Kosair Children's Hospital from head injuries.
They know her mother, Whitney Phillips, 21,
and mom's boyfriend, James Jones, 25, brought her there and they know
that their investigation led to other charges for the pair.
"Detectives were looking for any type of
evidence of assault or something of that nature," Wilkerson said.
"During that time, we did locate some narcotics."
According to the arrest report, police found two ounces of crack cocaine and a loaded handgun.
What police still don't know is who killed
the baby. Wilkerson says Phillips and Jones are people of interest but not the only ones.
"Where was the child dropped off, if it was,
as far as day cares, who had control of the child as far as custody and
certain points of that time where that child could have received those
injuries," Wilkerson said, when asked about questions detectives are trying to answer.
He says investigators are methodically trying
to establish a timeline and trying to learn more about the people who had contact with Ariah.
"It's hard to imagine and see children in
that situation," Wilkerson said. "It's even more difficult to imagine
that anyone would harm a child in that manner."
WAVE 3 news has learned more about the two known people in this case.
Phillips plead guilty two years ago to
assault and theft by unlawful taking and now could have her probation
revoked because of the new charge.
Jones has a long criminal history under the
name James McElroy. Charges include a June 2003 trafficking cocaine and
September 2003 trafficking marijuana charge. Both were dismissed.
McElroy also has another trafficking cocaine charge from late last year
that's been handed over to the grand jury.
Whether police will eventually add a charge of murder for both depends on the homicide investigation.
"We're going to keep an open mind and as far
as I'm concerned, everybody who had control of that child is a person of interest to us," Wilkerson said.
He says Ariah was not the only child who
lived in Jones' and Phillips' home. Child Protective Services has
stepped in to deal with that part of this investigation.

http://www.wave3.com/story/14014952/six-month-old-babys-death-now-a-homicide-investigation

Posters note: Well, as we know, from all the cases we cover here, statistically Mommy's boyfriend did it.

Louisville Metro Police detectives are investigating the death of a 6-month-old girl from brain injuries.
The girl's death is now being investigated as a homicide.

Police say her mother and the woman’s boyfriend are possible suspects but have not been charged at this time.

Whitney Phillips, 21, and James Jones, 25, were arrested for trafficking
a controlled substance after a search warrant was served to their house
at the 3700 block of Vermont Street.

Six-month-old Ariah Phillips died on Monday from trauma to her head and brain at Kosair Children’s Hospital.

Detectives say they found crack cocaine in the couple’s home and say they may have had other children.

“The fact that a child is dead is tragic enough but with the situation
going on there Child Protective Services will become involved. Hopefully
we’ll get this resolved with whatever good conclusion we can come to. I
can tell you its very taxing to detectives working on baby
investigations. Most of us have kids ourselves and it’s hard to imagine
and see children or imagine a child was harmed in that manner,” said
Lieutenant Barry Wilkerson with LMPD’s Homicide Unit.

Wilkerson goes on to say that this case is far from being over.
Detectives may have other persons of interest and will be investigating
who had cared for or was in contact with the baby girl before she died.
http://www.whas11.com/news/local/Baby-death-investigated-as-homicide-115907034.html

Merged these Tom

Police say siblings of 6-month-old killed in 2011 were also abused




Posted on July 30, 2013 at 5:22 PM

Updated today at 10:16 PM




LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- Louisville Metro Police now say a mother charged with murder also abused her other children.

Whitney Phillips is charged with killing her 6-month-old daughter in 2011.

After two years, Phillips and her boyfriend James McElroy were charged with the murder last week.

Police say the infant and her two older siblings endured extensive abuse before Ariah Phillips was murdered.

Child protective services were called to the home before the death and police say Phillips and McElroy were dealing drugs.

 “You want to make sure it's done right. You want to make sure you have it so that he is not going to get out and hurt another kid, and with a case like this we had to go and get a lot of information. There was CPS stuff that we had to obtain,” Sergeant Donny Burbrink, with LMPD, said.

Phillips has not made any comment publicly since her arrest. She says God knows what happened inside that home.

http://www.whas11.com/news/crimetracker/New-details-released-after-Lou-mom-boyfriend-indicted-in-childs-death-217632231.html