This is the series of events after the tragic death of Addison May Elizabeth Due. Addy was a beautiful one year old little girl who could brighten our day with her smile. On September 21st at 8:44 am, our families lives were changed forever. Addy spent the week with her father and never came back home. The police stated that her father had found her in the floor unresponsive, cold and blue after h
e awoke. At first all we were told was that Addy had died in her sleep and thats all they could tell us. Addy's father has several family members on the police force including a first cousin, who is a police officer and his mother, who works at the Howell County Court House and one of the detectives in charge had been a long time friend and neighbor of the father for several years. When Addy’s father was taken in to submit his statement, a family member called to see if they had tested his blood alcohol level and they said that they weren't able to give us any information but that if we called and requested it they would have to do it. So, we requested that it be done. We later found out that it was never done, even though we knew his history of severe alcohol abuse. In his statement he admitted to having some drinks that night and officers told us that there was an empty whiskey bottle found in the trash by his night stand. The police failed to test his blood alcohol level that day, even after it had been requested by our family. The detective stated that they had no reason to test him because they didn’t smell anything on his breath, even though he had admitted to drinking that night. We had several meetings at the Police station where we were told very little information and in fact one of the officer's(who was very defensive) said that " No one was arrested, so that in itself should tell you something". And he seemed angered that we had even questioned it. We soon received a letter from Child Services that no charges were going to be filed in the case because there was not enough evidence to support any allegations. We spoke with a lady from child services on several occasions but she dismissed all of our concerns and never questioned the father or us to find out information. She, as far as we know only took what the police said into consideration and never did any investigating of her own. The account of the incident that the detective told us was that Addy's dad had been helping the neighbors cook dinner and he had left the children with his mother (Addy's paternal grandmother). He had a couple drinks and was walking back and forth checking on the children. He said he came home at 11:00 that night and that she had been found by her dad that morning when he was awoken by Addy's three year old brother wanting breakfast. He then awoke and found her in the floor and then began screaming for his mom,( Addy’s paternal grandmother) in the next room, whom he lived with and she then called 911 at 8:44 am. It was later discovered that she had been posting onto facebook at 8:33 a.m. while Addy had been deceased since two o'clock a.m. According to the coroner's time of death it was at approximately 2:00 am and our family had to find out from the obituary because no one had bothered to notify us her time of death. Even the funeral home employee that helped us with the arrangements kept saying how the father’s family were good people and he had known them forever. Addy's 11 year old half sister was also there that night, she stated that her father returned home at 1:30 a.m. and not 11:30 a.m. like he had told the police. She said she was positive that she woke up and looked at the clock and it was one thirty when he got home. Is it coincidental that Addy’s time of death occured thirty minutes after he had returned home after drinking? None of these stories are not adding up or making sense. The detective stated that Addy May was found in the bedroom floor and when he arrived at the scene that she was in the living room floor with no clothes on or diaper on her, but found the diaper she had been wearing next to the bed and was so soaked with urine it weighed five to seven pounds. We asked the officer if they were going to continue the investigation due to the alcohol bottle and the fact that he had been drinking and neglect of changing her diaper. The detective said “It was accidental and we can’t arrest him for being a crappy father”. From this point we waited until November 10, 2014 to hear back from the autopsy report. The final diagnosis was positional asphyxia resulting from co-sleeping. Dr. M. at Burton Creek clinic said that it was a nice way of saying that she was pinned against him and couldn’t move so she suffocated causing her death. The report stated: She had multiple petechiae on her face, arms and chest and hemorrhage in the thymus. The report said she was found in the bed but the police told us she was found in the floor. The police also told us her diaper was found on the floor and Addy was unclothed when she was found but the autopsy report stated she was wearing a urine soaked diaper. There are so many inconsistencies that I feel this needs to be investigated further. Addy was one year old and the instincts for a child of that age is to wake up and fight for a breath, unless she was pinned in a way that she couldn’t move at all. She would have fought for every breath at her age. None of this makes sense !!!! Even if it was accidental there should have been an investigation into this situation with a child of Addy’s age. Nothing anyone can say or do will bring Addy back to us but she can’t speak for herself so we are her voice, to find out what happened to her on that fateful night. We need to know the truth. She didn’t deserve to die because of her father’s negligence. If she had been at home that weekend this wouldn’t have happened. If he hadn’t been drinking this wouldn’t have happened. This all could have been prevented. If all of the investigative departments would have done their jobs maybe we could have gotten answers about what happened that night and an investigation could have been done. Copies of this letter have been sent to the FBI in Kansas City, MO, the Attorney Generals office, Missouri Department of social services, Cheif investigator, Skip McGuire with the Missouri child fatality review program and several other agencies. Even if this was an accident, we believe it needs to be investigated to find out the truth about how and why Addy May died. She deserves that much. Thank You,
From the family of Addy May
