ANTONIO HARVEY - 3 Months - Albany - GA

Second baby with teen mom dies
September 24, 2010
Two teenage mothers lose their babies on consecutive days in Albany, with both deaths being investigated by authorities. - Pete Skiba, staff writer

ALBANY, Ga. — A 16-year-old mother lost her 3-month-old baby, Antonio J’twon Harvey, about noon Thursday at her home on the 1200 block of Gillespie Avenue.

It was the second consecutive day that an infant of a teenaged mother died in Albany, officials said. On Wednesday, a 4-month-old baby identified as Travontae Goude, the child of a 13-year-old mother, died at his residence on the 2100 block of Leonard Avenue.

Officials have not released the names of the two young mothers.

“The deaths are under investigation,” said Dougherty Judicial Circuit District Attorney Greg Edwards. “The children were found dead in their homes. It is an unfortunate coincidence.”

Georgia law requires any unexpected death of a child to be investigated by authorities.

There were no other details available on either death, Edwards said.

The infants’ bodies were taken for autopsy. Edwards hoped to have the results from the procedures on Monday.

The deaths are being investigated by the Child Death Investigative Team headed by Edwards. The team is a multi-agency organization specializing in investigating the deaths of children.

The team automatically responds to the deaths of children, whether that death is from foul play or natural causes, Edwards said. It has procedures in place to protect any surviving children.

Edwards said an example of a procedure would be taking a surviving child to the Lily Pad, a rape crisis and child advocacy center, to be interviewed in a more suitable atmosphere than a police station.

In Thursday’s case, a surviving twin and an older child were too young to be questioned, Edwards said.

“We don’t know if there were crimes involved or not,” Edwards said. “The autopsies will tell us much more.”

Somebody is finally going to take a look at the real problem at last instead of just keeping an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff!

Updated: 5:09 PM Sep 27, 2010
Official: Autopsies shed little light on babies deaths.
Filed 3:30 p.m.
A county commissioner pleads for help with preventing teen pregnancies after discussion of two recent infant deaths Monday morning.
Posted: 3:44 PM Sep 27, 2010
Reporter: J.D. Sumner
Email Address: j.d.sumner@albanyherald.com

ALBANY, Ga: Investigators say that preliminary autopsy results have failed to show a definitive cause of death for two infants who died last week in two separate Albany incidents.

District Attorney Investigator Gregory Blackmon said Monday that both autopsies revealed no trauma on the bodies of neither 3-month-old Antonio Harvey nor 4-month-old Travontae Goude and that the death investigations of both children will continue.

Police responded to Goude's home on the 2100 block of Leonard Avenue after his mother discovered the child not breathing and partially entangled in the mesh netting of his crib.

The next day, police responded to Harvey's home on Gillespie Drive where he was found unresponsive.

Blackmon said that the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Goude has asked to see additional photos and videos of the child's bed before making a determination in the case.

"There will be follow-ups done on both cases," Blackmon said. "Investigations are continuing on."

Discussion about the deaths spilled over into Monday's County Commission meeting where Commissioner Jack Stone said he was deeply troubled by the deaths and called for action from the District Attorney's office in investigating not only the deaths but the circumstances of the pregnancy.

"This hearts my heart to hear of these two babies dying and that one of their mother's was just 13! 13! That's a baby having a baby. It's just a crying shame," he said.

Blackmon said that an inquiry has been made into the pregnancy and that contact has been made with the father, but because of his age the charge could only be a misdemeanor and the statute of limitations has expired.

Goude's mother, who is actually 14 according to police, along with the father, who is 15, violated Georgia law when they had sex, Blackmon said. But because he was only a year older than she was at the time, it would be the less serious misdemeanor and the window police would have had to charge him would have already expired.

The Goude case is the exception rather than the rule, according to Blackmon. Teen mothers rarely disclose the father of their children which forces investigators to get court-ordered DNA samples which are costly and take weeks to process, he said.

County Commissioner Muarlean Edwards said that a forum on parenting is being planned incorporating the District Attorney's Office, the state department of Family and Children's Services and other social entities but that a date has yet to be set.