Joseph Troy Napier and Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers (IRCSO and WPTV screenshot)
A 30-year-old father in Florida has been arrested after police say he killed his 2-month-old daughter by shoving a baby wipe all the way down the infant’s throat, choking her to death. Joseph Troy Napier was taken into custody on Thursday and charged with one count of aggravated manslaughter of a child in connection with the 2021 death of young Iris Napier, authorities announced.
According to a press release from the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office, IRCSO deputies and fire department medics at about 6:42 p.m. on May 28, 2021, responded to a home located in the 1500 block of 6th Avenue in Vero Beach in response to a call regarding an unresponsive 2-month-old girl. The dispatcher immediately told the caller — later identified as Napier — to put the child on the floor and began giving instructions on how to perform CPR on the baby.
Upon arriving at the scene, first responders made contact with Napier and identified him as the baby’s father. They also located the victim, who Napier said was “choking,” and deputies immediately took over CPR efforts while rushing the child to an ambulance. The victim’s 18-month-old sibling was also at the residence. Emergency Medical Services personnel said the child had no heart activity when they transported her to Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital.
Multiple medics performed mouth sweeps on the child and were unable to find any obstructions to her airways.
During the preliminary investigation, Mr. Napier told deputies the infant choked and he could only see a small white object in the back of her mouth. He then gave a timeline of events and claimed he left the child unattended, on a couch, with his 18-month-old daughter for approximately 10 minutes,” the release states. “When he returned to the room he discovered the child was choking and in distress but still waiting approximately 5 minute before calling 911. Detectives later determined that Mr. Napier spent approximately 30 minutes on his cell phone making his timeline inaccurate.”
Emergency room doctors worked on Iris and discovered that she had a baby wipe stuffed down her throat. One of the doctors told police that the wipe was “so far down the child’s throat” that it would have been impossible for the victim to have swallowed it on her own, officials said. Additionally, several doctors told police that an infant that age lacks the motor functions to consume such a wipe and “swallow until the point it could not be seen.”
Iris was transferred to Nemours Children’s Hospital where she unfortunately succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead.
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An autopsy determined that Iris’ cause of death was “asphyxia due to an obstruction of the airway due to a foreign object” and the manner of death was “unknown,” according to the probable cause affidavit.
In an interview with detectives, Iris’ grandfather, Joseph Miller, who also lived in the 6th Avenue home, said that at approximately 5:50 p.m., less than an hour before Napier called 911, he came home and found Napier standing over the baby and yelling, “You need to shut the f— up!” per the affidavit.
The victim’s pediatrician told police that in her opinion, she did not believe Iris could inhale an entire baby wipe on her own, and said the only way it could have gotten that far down was “if someone placed it there.” She further stated that Iris’ 18-month-old sibling would not have the dexterity, strength, or tenacity to shove the wipe down Iris’ throat.
In interviews with detectives, Napier suggested multiple times that Iris’ sibling could have been responsible for the wipe in her throat, claiming the 18-month-old would regularly try to place things in her sister’s mouth, such as a pacifier or the baby’s bottle.
But investigators said that was not the case. Measurements of the 18-month-old’s wrists, hands, and fingers allegedly showed that “it would have been impossible for [her] to get her hand inside Iris’ mouth past her knuckle” and place the baby wipe in her throat, police said. Investigators further concluded that “only an adult could have forced a wipe not only into Iris’ mouth, but all the way down her throat.”
“Our forensic team has determined that his claims that the 18-month-old child placed a wipe down the throat of this 2-month-old infant, we’ve proven that that’s not possible,” Sheriff Eric Flowers said during a press conference. “He shoved that baby wipe down her throat to shut her up.”
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