BEAVER, Utah — A woman has been arrested and charged with murder in the shaking death of her infant, according to charging documents filed with the 5th District Court in Beaver on October 18.
An autopsy performed on the infant, just 23 days old, found that the manner of death was a homocide.
This finding came after the infant was rushed to Beaver Valley Hospital after a 911 call on September 19 reported that the infant was not breathing, and that CPR was in progress.
Tawna Steed, the infant's mother, was charged after it was revealed by the infant's father that he had seen her shaking the infant and squeezing the infant's chest.
According to the pathologist's report from the autopsy, the infant had multiple healing rib fractures that had occurred on at least two different occurrences, and at least two separate brain hemorrhages, which would have occurred by someone shaking the infant or some other type of blunt force trauma causing death.
Steed's fiance, Josh Downy, also reported that he heard her yelling at the baby to stop crying as she shook the infant. After these incidents, he said he took the child to his parents' house.
Steed denied hurting or killing their child, but asked for an attorney under questioning, at which time she was placed under arrest and taken to the Beaver County Correctional Facility.
