EVAN WALLACE and AMY WALLACE - 21 months and 7 weeks -(2009/2007) Peoria IL

Coroner's jury: Boy's death a homicide
After one of the longest deliberations in the memory of Peoria County Coroner Johnna Ingersoll, a coroner's jury on Thursday ruled the May death of a 21-month-old boy a homicide.

By RYAN ORI
Posted Sep. 4, 2009 @ 12:01 am
Sep 4, 2009 at 3:03 AM

PEORIA -    After one of the longest deliberations in the memory of Peoria County Coroner Johnna Ingersoll, a coroner's jury on Thursday ruled the May death of a 21-month-old boy a homicide.

   The jury deliberated for nearly 1 hour, 20 minutes - not including a brief return to ask follow-up questions of Ingersoll and Detective Shawn Meeks of the Peoria Police Department - before declaring Evan Wallace a homicide victim.

   "Our lives have been devastated by this," maternal grandmother Sheryl Scheets said during the inquest. "We can't get closure."

   When the homicide verdict was read, Scheets repeatedly said: "Thank you, God!"

   Amid tears, the boy's mother, Sebrina Wallace of Princeville, repeated: "My baby!"

   Immediately after the exhausting deliberation, the jury heard facts presented in the 2007 death of the infant's cousin, Amy Wallace, who died under similar circumstances at 7 weeks of age. The jury ruled her manner of death undetermined.

   Amy Wallace's death originally had been attributed to sudden infant death syndrome until facts of the cousins' deaths were compared.

   Thursday's inquests are used only to determine manner of death. Criminal charges in either death would come from prosecutors, after the completion of police investigations.

   Samuel Wallace, the father of Amy, was present when both babies were discovered in distress, authorities said. Peoria and North Pekin police are investigating the deaths.

   Samuel Wallace's presence when Evan was found unresponsive at a Peoria apartment on May 23 and when Amy was found in a North Pekin apartment on Oct. 22, 2007, and the fact that both babies were found lying face-down on fabric - clothes in one case, blankets in another - "raises the possibility of asphyxia" in Amy's death, Ingersoll said.

   Both babies were pronounced dead at the Children's Hospital of Illinois at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria.

   Samuel Wallace has not been charged with a crime and authorities have not named him as a suspect. No arrests have been made in either death.

   Meeks said his department's investigation into Evan's death continues. North Pekin Police Chief Pat Landrith said his department plans to "re-coordinate" with Peoria police in regard to Amy's death "because of the circumstances."

   During Evan's inquest, Meeks and Ingersoll revealed that the baby had abrasions on his nose, mouth, chin, head and neck. Ingersoll called the abrasions "suspicious of asphyxia from suffocation."

   Meeks said the boy's father, Daniel Wallace, and two other adults - including his brother Samuel - were present when Evan was found unresponsive about 2:40 a.m. and was pronounced dead at the hospital less than an hour later.

   Evan, who was lying in the same adult bed with then nearly 4-year-old brother Elijah Wallace, was found in a pile of clothes between the bed and wall, but with his face turned to the side and unobstructed by the clothes, police were told by the boy's father.

    Meeks said the abrasions could not have been caused by rescue personnel. The detective said Daniel Wallace told him the child looked fine after playing outside before being put to bed.

   Sebrina Wallace said her son was unusually strong for his age. During an illness in which Evan became dehydrated, she said it took three adults to hold the 21-month-old down to administer IVs. She said she couldn't understand how a youngster so strong would be unable to pull himself out of a pile of clothes without suffocating.

   During Amy's inquest, Samuel Wallace - the only person in the North Pekin home when she was found unresponsive and not breathing - said he panicked after discovering the girl in distress about 9:25 a.m. on a makeshift bed of blankets and a pillow placed on the floor. Rather than calling 911, he said he began running out of the apartment with the baby toward a nearby police station, before running into a neighbor who instead called for help.

   She was pronounced dead at the hospital soon after arriving.

   "I loved Amy very much," Samuel Wallace said. "That's all I have to say."

   Ingersoll said there were no signs of trauma to Amy's body but that the remarkably similar circumstances of the cousins' deaths left open the possibility of an intentional suffocation.


Read more: http://www.pjstar.com/article/20090904/News/309049870#ixzz2t8oaG5UY

http://www.pjstar.com/news/x1139673156/Coroners-jury-Boys-death-a-homicide

no follow up charges - guess this is a cold case?