COLUMBUS, Ohio – Police say they are treating the death of a 14-month-old boy from Maryland as a homicide after Cameron Beckford’s body was pulled from the waters of the Big Walnut Creek.
UPDATE: Franklin County Coroner Dr. Anahi Ortiz says preliminary results of Friday’s autopsy on Cameron Beckford show he died of blunt force trauma to his chest and abdomen.
Cameron’s mother (above left) is being held on $150,000 bail on felony charges of child endangering and tampering with evidence after her story that she and a male acquaintance abandoned the child fell apart, police said. Dainesha Stevens’ lawyer said she lied about leaving Cameron on the doorstep on a stranger’s Southeast Side home Dec. 26.
The body of the toddler (above right) was found in Big Walnut Creek by mounted patrol police officers in a remote area near the intersection of Noe Bixby and Myers roads and he is believed to have been in water for several days, police spokesman Sgt. Rich Weiner said.
Cameropn is the 89th homicide victim of 2014.
Cameron was first reported missing Monday when Stevens, 24, reported her six-year-old daughter was also missing, though the girl was recovered at a West Side home in good condition, Weiner said. Stevens told police she and the children were visiting from Frederick, Md., when she and the male friend left Cameron on a porch because they could no longer take care of him.
Court documents say the boy showed signs of having been spanked severely.
The man, whose name has been withheld by police, was arrested on unrelated warrants, Weiner said.
The investigation continues and anyone with information is asked to contact the Columbus Police Homicide Unit at 614-645-4730 or Crime Stoppers at 614-645-TIPS.