A Virginia woman has been charged with murder in the death of a 9-month-old baby, who died after the woman allegedly shook the child in April. Amy Hunter, 25, was charged in federal court in Alexandria last week with second-degree murder in the death of the baby girl, identified in court documents only as C.P.
Hunter regularly cared for the girl at her home on the U.S. Marines Corps base in Quantico, where Hunter’s husband is stationed, according to a criminal complaint.
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The complaint says Hunter was at her home with C.P. and her own 10-month-old daughter on April 26, when she called 911 to report that the girl “hit the back of her head really hard” after she “smacked her head on the staircase.”
The child was taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital, where she died two days later. A medical examiner ruled the death a homicide.
In an initial interview with a Naval Criminal Investigative Services agent the day of the incident, Hunter said she left C.P. alone while she went to the bathroom; when she returned, C.P. turned around and fell backward, hitting her head on a chair leg, according to the complaint.
Doctors at the hospital found that the girl suffered from skull fractures, soft tissue swelling and bleeding in the brain consistent with “impact on the back of her head” and “violent repetitive rotational head trauma.”
In a second interview, the complaint says, Hunter admitted that “she repeatedly shook C.P., causing C.P.’s head to strike the wall.” She also admitted to shaking the child in a similar manner about three weeks before the child’s death, the complaint says.
When investigators searched Hunter’s computer, they found that someone had conducted online searches for “shaken baby syndrome” and “baby hits back of head.”
Hunter’s attorney could not be reached for comment on Friday.
Shaken baby syndrome is a leading cause of child-abuse deaths in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Several recent studies indicate that hospitals are seeing more shaken baby cases, including among military families. The Marine Corps Times reported last month that the number of military children killed by child abuse or neglect more than doubled between 2003 and 2010, rising from 14 to 29.
