Calgary police have ruled the death of a toddler at a private dayhome last year as suspicious based on new medical evidence.
On May 2, 2012 Mackenzy Woolfsmith was critically injured following an incident at a local private dayhome in the 0-100 block of Elgin Heath S.E.
The little girl died from her injuries the next day.
The investigation was taken over by the CPS Major Crimes Section because of the nature of Mackenzy’s injuries.
Police have now ruled her death as suspicious, based on new medical evidence and the lack of co-operation from the individual with exclusive opportunity to Mackenzy.
“The new medical evidence that we have is that the victim suffered multiple, blunt force trauma injuries that resulted in her death. The Homicide Unit is now treating this as a suspicious death investigation and that the injuries are inconsistent with what we were told during the early stages of this investigation,” said Homicide Unit Staff Sgt. Doug Andrus.
Police say the injuries are inconsistent with a short or accidental fall down a set of stairs.
Andrus says the Office of the Medical Examiner provided the cause of death and that it was supported by several experts who consulted with investigators.
“The Medical Examiner has provided us with a cause of death, multiple, blunt-force trauma. We have also consulted with a number of medical experts outside of the Medical Examiner’s Office, these are experts that have expertise in child death investigations and we’re all on the same page as far as the cause of death,” said Andrus.
Police say they have talked to a woman who was the only adult in the home at the time of the incident.
“This person is the only adult that was in the home at the time the injuries were suffered. She is considered a person of interest in our investigation. She was cooperative during the initial stages of the investigation but she is now uncooperative,” said Andrus.
Police say that other children were also in the home at the time and that they have talked to other parents who used the dayhome.
“We have spoken to other parents who had children in the dayhome. That they have provided us with information that has assisted us in moving this investigation forward,” said Andrus.
Police say that to their knowledge the dayhome is no longer in operation.
MacKenzy's parents, Dan and Jennifer Woolfsmith, released a statement on Friday saying:
We want the truth for Mackenzy regardless of how hard it is for us or our families. We have been in contact with the police throughout the last year and want them to have all the necessary information to reach the right conclusion.
Nothing will lessen our heartache over the loss of our little girl, but we do want closure around her death so that we can focus on remembering her and the wonderful times we had as a family, as well as raising her new little brother. We miss Mackenzy every moment of every day.
Investigators say they still have a lot of work to do before they can get to the stage where charges might be laid.
Police are asking anyone with information about this case to contact Crime Stoppers anonymously using any of the following methods:
TALK: 1-800-222-8477
TYPE: tttTIPS.com
TEXT: tttTIPS to 274637
