Bellingham Couple Arrested for Manslaughter of Infant

BELLINGHAM, WA- A young Bellingham Couple has been arrested and charged with manslaughter in the death of their infant son on  December 8th of 2015.

According to a statement from the Bellingham Police Department “The circumstances leading to the child’s death began far before the day he died.”

According to Whatcom County  9-1-1   audio recordings obtained by SkagitBreaking.com through a creative common license  the infants  mother,  22-year old Brittany Daniels (Hetrick), was at work and called 9-1-1 after receiving a Facebook text message from the infants father, 23-year old Cody Shields, that the infant had died in his crib.  The Father later told police that he did not have any minutes on his cell phone to call the mother so he  messaged her instead. Multiple police units responded to the couples address in the 1800 block of Alabama Street.  Officers and medics  confirmed the child had in fact died.

The Whatcom County Medical Examiners Office reported the 3-month old infant, who’s name was Lucian died weighing only 9 pounds 7 ounces, which is only 1 pound, 1 ounce more then he weighed at birth.  The medical examiner said the infant had nearly zero body fat when he passed away.

The cause of death was listed by the medical examiner  as undetermined. The Mechanism of death was listed as  “malnutrition and dehydration, and gross neglect-Homicide.   Bellingham Police said it appears that  the infant was not fed or was fed very little in the days prior to his death.  The medical Examiner said there was nothing found in the infants intestines or stomach and appears he had not been fed in quite a long time.

Both parents made their first court appearances Friday, February 19th  and were held in Lieu of $10,000 bond for 2nd degree manslaughter.