A toddler was crushed to death after her parents allegedly placed a huge suitcase on top of her cot to keep her trapped inside.
Police are probing the horror death of a two-year-old and have arrested parents Kodi Glenn Simon and Kateri Ann Simon near Cleveland, Ohio last week in connection with the death. Officers say the tot was allegedly crushed by a case weighing 50lbs.
As the Mirror reports, Maeve Simon, tragically died in November 2022. According to court records filed earlier this month, the couple are accused of causing the toddler’s death “without malice”.
Authorities say the tragic incident took place on November 26, 2022. The charges listed against the former Marine Corps veteran allege dad Kodi placed the child in a “portable crib with a foam mattress and a suitcase filled with books on top of the portable crib, and that such conduct constituted culpable negligence which resulted in grievous bodily harm, to wit: mechanical asphyxiation resulting in death.”
According to an official report from the Florida Department of Children and Families, obtained by the Tampa Bay Times. The child is believed to have had trouble sleeping. The report read that the child would often escape out of the cot, messing up her room and waking up her siblings.
The report alleges that the couple attempted to put the girl in a Pack N’ Play, but she was able to climb out of that as well. Both are now facing charges of involuntary manslaughter, according to the federal indictment.
The couple allegedly attempted to cover the Pack N’ Play with a zip-on mesh top and put the child in a sleeping bag that covered her legs and restricted movement, but the child was still able to escape, documents said.
It was then that the Simon’s began stacking the book-filled suitcase, which reportedly weighed 50 pounds, on top of the mesh covering along with the children’s foam couch, according to the report.
On the night of the child’s death, Kodi Simon reportedly put their three kids to bed between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. He reportedly heard the child “babble” for an additional 15 minutes before she stopped, and he assumed she had fallen asleep. His wife arrived home a few hours later and the couple went to sleep, according to the report.
The following morning the couple found the 2-year-old inside the Pack N’ Play with the suitcase and other items pinned down on her neck, according to the report. They immediately called 911 but the child was pronounced dead after being transported to a local hospital.
“The parents knowingly placed items over the top of the toddler’s Pack N’ Play in an effort to keep her confined inside,” a DCF investigator wrote in the report. “Although they were not doing it for discipline purposes, and although they were not willfully trying to harm her, their actions ultimately led to her demise.”
The report noted that the couple had never had previous incidents involving the welfare of their children and the other two kids reportedly were well cared for.
Kodi Simon, who previously pleaded guilty to child endangerment at his court martial last year, waived extradition and is being transported from Ohio to Florida while Kateri Simon was released on a £10,000 unsecured bond, federal records show.
The couple are both facing charges of involuntary manslaughter, according to the federal