Hamilton County medical examiner's report details cause of Soddy-Daisy boy's death

photo Justin Dale Bradley stands with attorney Mike Little before Judge David Bales in the City/County Courts Building. Bradley committed suicide in Hamilton County Jail in September after being charged in 3-year-old Dakota Arndt's death.

After 3-year-old Dakota Arndt was beaten to death and the lone suspect in the baby's murder hanged himself less than a month later in his jail cell, it seemed like the case was closed.

photo Tyler Arndt holds his infant son, Dakota, in 2009.

Now, medical records and interviews with family indicate the boy suffered long before his death on Aug. 29.

A 14-page autopsy released last week revealed that the 3-year-old was so severely bludgeoned that it was hard to determine how old some of the injuries were. The report cites the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head.

"He died a horrible death," said Deborah Lowen, director of the Center for Child Protection & Well-being at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, who specializes in child abuse pediatrics. She called the autopsy report one of the worst she had seen in awhile due to the extent of the injuries inflicted on the child. The Times Free Press asked Lowen to review the autopsy report; she is not involved in the case.

Page after page of the report detail contusions and hemorrhages marking the boy. A chart of his body, included in the autopsy, shows that his arms were covered with red marks, bruises and scratches, and so were his legs and feet. One lung had collapsed. His head had been struck repeatedly.

Dakota's genitalia sustained blunt force injury. While that could indicate sexual abuse, Lowen said the damage also could have been done during the severe beating of his entire body.

When Dakota's father, Tyler Arndt, received a call on Aug. 27 saying his son was at Erlanger hospital in Chattanooga, he left immediately to drive from Michigan to be with his son. Arndt had seen Dakota only once in the previous nine months. Dakota was in the custody of his mother, Brianna Kwekel, who lived with her boyfriend, Justin Bradley, the man later arrested and charged with the boy's death.

Arndt arrived at the hospital the same day. Instead of being greeted by his son carrying a plastic toy truck with a crooked grin on his face, he saw Dakota hooked up to machines -- brain dead in a hospital bed.

A short time later, Dakota was taken off life support.

"I never expected this to be how I saw him last," Arndt said.

When he received a copy of the autopsy report last week, he said he was shocked to learn the extent of the injuries his child sustained.

Still, he said, he wasn't surprised.

*

The home Arndt and Kwekel shared in Michigan was where Dakota spent the majority of his short life.

Arndt described Dakota's childhood as happy, despite the arguments and rocky relationship he shared with Kwekel. Arndt oftentimes felt like he was raising two children -- Dakota and Kwekel.

"The only reason I stayed with her was because of Dakota," said Arndt, who was never married to Kwekel.

Timeline* 2009: Kwekel gives birth to a daughter* Feb. 5, 2011: Dakota is born* Fall 2013: Kwekel and Dakota move to Soddy-Daisy from Michigan* June 17, 2014: Dakota is taken to Erlanger and treated for swollen testicles* Aug. 27, 2014: Dakota arrives at Erlanger after being beaten unconscious* Aug. 29, 2014: Dakota is taken off life- support, he is pronounced dead and his organs are donated

Arndt said he questioned Kwekel's judgment as a parent.

"[She] wanted to be a mom, without the responsibility of being a mom," he said.

When Kwekel took Dakota with her to Tennessee late in 2013, Arndt said he pleaded that she leave their son with him. She refused, and Arndt picked up the phone book and called more than 20 attorneys asking how he could get full custody of his son. Each attorney told him the same thing: It would take time and money.

Arndt was broke.

"If I had known this [Dakota's death] would happen, and so quickly after him leaving home, I would have never let the boy out of my sight," Arndt said. "I would have done anything to save him."

Arndt now wonders whether Kwekel knew of the abuse and, if so, why she let it go on.

Kwekel, who does not face charges in the abuse or death of her son, moved back to Michigan after Dakota's death and is pregnant with Bradley's child. And family members say they are terrified for the unborn child.

A relative of Kwekel's, who spoke on terms of anonymity, said he has been concerned about Kwekel's custody of Dakota for years and is concerned about her unborn child.

"I will freak out if she walks out of the hospital with the child she is pregnant with," he said.

"Is it a three strikes you're out kind of thing? Are we going to let another child fall down?" said Marion Hutchinson, Dakota's grandmother and Tyler Arndt's mother.

photo Dakota Arndt, who was killed allegedly by the mother's boyfriend.

She accompanied her son to Chattanooga from Michigan when Dakota was hospitalized in August, and she said Kwekel admitted in the hospital room that Dakota had been badly bruised before. Records from Erlanger show that the child was taken to the hospital in June with swollen testicles and that the Tennessee Department of Children's Services investigated the incident.

Still, Dakota was allowed to leave the hospital with his mother and Bradley on June 17.

Ten weeks later, the boy was returned to the hospital, where he died.

Capt. Bill Johnson with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office said a Child Protective Investigative Team will continue to investigate the case even though the prime suspect committed suicide.

Family members say they have not been contacted by police or interviewed, but Hamilton County District Attorney Neal Pinkston and Johnson confirm that the team has met and is taking action.

"The case is active, open, and ongoing," Johnson said.

Pinkston would not say whether Kwekel or anyone else could face criminal charges. Citing state law, a DCS spokesman said documents regarding previous investigations into Dakota's injuries could not be released, but he confirmed that the agency had been involved in the past.

As far as protecting Kwekel's unborn child, Linda O'Neal, executive director of the Tennessee Commission on Children & Youth, said DCS is limited in what action it can take, since Kwekel currently does not have a child in her custody.

"They can monitor her," O'Neal said, but until the baby is born it is up to the district attorney to take action.

She said it is sad that family members and neighbors in this case suspected abuse was occurring but didn't speak up.

*

Kwekel, speaking for the first time about the case, refused to answer when asked whether she or others abused Dakota before his death.

All she would say was that she hadn't know her boyfriend was keeping Dakota that night. Kwekel was serving time in Silverdale for a second DUI charge and intended for Dakota to stay with her boyfriend's mother while she was in jail.

"I just never thought he [Bradley] would do this," Kwekel said through tears during a phone interview Friday from Michigan."Dakota was loved by me so much."

Records show that Kwekel's own childhood was marred by abuse.

A Michigan man was prosecuted in 2005 for sexually abusing Kwekel as a minor, court records in her home county show.

Not long after, Kwekel's biological mother lost custody of Kwekel and her siblings because the Michigan Department of Human Services said the children were being neglected and abused. Kwekel was placed in foster care until Karla Baker and her former husband, Kwekel's aunt and uncle, legally adopted her in 2007. Before the formal adoption Kwekel was hospitalized for mental health issues.

"We adopted her [Kwekel] not knowing many facts at all," Baker said Thursday during a phone interview from Michigan. "We were told our niece was in trouble and had been acting up... We just thought she needed love."

It was not long after Kwekel was adopted by the Bakers that problems began. One night, in 2008, an altercation occurred in the home when Baker grounded her adopted daughter.

"We got into a brawl," Baker said. "She attacked me."

After this incident, Kwekel moved between a couple of different homes, until returning to the Bakers' where things got "patched-up" for a short time, according to Baker.

In 2009, Kwekel moved out, and the mother and daughter have had minimal communication since, Baker said.

That same year, Kwekel gave birth to a daughter, who was adopted by the father's family.

A few years later, in 2011, Kwekel gave birth to Dakota. Baker said she was concerned about him being allowed to remain in her custody since the day he was born.

"I prayed safety for him every day," she said.

Contact staff writer Kendi Anderson at kendi.anderson@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6592.

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