After a four-week-old baby died on March 4, the Hamilton County medical examiner’s office found signs of both recent and healing blunt-force injuries, suggesting the day she died wasn’t the first time she was abused.
The findings confirm what Chattanooga police suspected after the baby’s father, 26-year-old Ivan Dunton, told police he shook his daughter Olivia because she wouldn’t stop crying.
Dunton was arrested the same day and charged with criminal homicide and aggravated child abuse.
The medical examiner’s report, which typically takes about six weeks to complete, states that the infant died as a result of blunt-force injuries to her head and chest.
According to the report, the infant had fractures to the skull and ribs, bleeding in the right eye and spinal cord, as well as several bruises to the face, scalp, ribs, arms, shoulders, lower back and brain tissue.