US: Father killed infant daughter by stuffing baby wipe in her mouth, police learn two years after death

A father was arrested after an extensive inquiry spanning over two years revealed that he stuffed a baby wipe inside mouth of his two-month-old daughter resulting in her tragic death. The incident initially took place on May 28, 2021, when the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office received an emergency call regarding an unresponsive two-month-old infant in Vero Beach, Florida. According to an official statement from the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office released on Monday, dispatchers immediately provided instructions on administering CPR to the child to the father, Joseph Napier. Simultaneously, they alerted police deputies and fire rescue personnel to rush to the location. Upon reaching the residence in Vero Beach, law enforcement made contact with Napier and his two-month-old daughter. Regrettably, the child was found to be “unresponsive and turning blue,” as reported by the police statement. A responding deputy promptly took over the CPR efforts, and the infant was swiftly transported to the hospital. Tragically, the young girl could not be saved. The preliminary investigation revealed that Napier informed deputies that the infant had choked, describing a small white object visible at the back of her mouth. He provided a sequence of events, asserting that he had left the child alone on a couch with his 18-month-old daughter for approximately 10 minutes. Upon returning to the room, he claimed to have noticed the child in distress due to choking. Surprisingly, he waited around 5 minutes before dialing 911 for assistance. Subsequently, a baby wipe was extracted from deep within the infant’s throat, identified as the root cause of the airway blockage that led to her tragic demise. Detectives, during their investigation, ascertained that Napier had spent “roughly 30 minutes on his mobile phone,” leading to inconsistencies in his provided timeline of events for the day of May 28, 2021. The police disclosed, “Based on all the amassed evidence and consultation with medical experts, it was deduced that the sole individual present at the time of the incident, capable of inserting the wipe so profoundly into the child’s throat, was Joseph Napier.” Following the comprehensive two-year investigation, the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office declared the arrest of Joseph Napier on Monday. He has been charged with manslaughter and is presently in custody at the Indian River County Jail, with bail set at £750,000. The Indian River County Sheriff’s Office conveyed, “While this investigation has involved an immensely sorrowful loss of life, we hope that this arrest can offer some solace to the friends and family affected.”