The death of a child that prompted the state to take over the Bertie County Department of Social Services is now being investigated as a murder.
Two-year-old Jamie Drain died on December 2nd at a home near Lewiston Woodville, and an autopsy report released yesterday says the toddler had been returned to her mother after being taken into DSS custody during the investigation of a child abuse case.
The report states that the child’s mother was in the kitchen cooking when she heard the child fall and hit her head, but the medical examiner said the toddler had “extensive head trauma with scalp contusions, face contusions, and hemispheric acute subdural hemorrhage with acute subarachnoid hemorrhage.”
It says the cause of death was blunt force trauma of the head, and the manner of death was homicide.
Sheriff Tyrone Ruffin said a team of investigators is working on the case, but the department will not rush to make an arrest until their work is complete.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services took over Bertie County child welfare services earlier this month, citing the child’s death. It’s the second time in three years that the state stepped in.
