Savanna Dawn and Kyrios March allegedly murdered her son Marquel March, leaving him with a slew of broken bones. (Mugshots via Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail)
An Ohio woman and her boyfriend have been arrested for allegedly murdering her 8-month-old son. Records show that Savanna Dawson, 23, and Kyrios L. March Jr., 24, were booked Friday for murder into the Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail.
As previously reported, cops in Columbus, Ohio, had been seeking them for allegedly murdering infant Marquel Smith.
Officers were dispatched to the home on Monday about a report of the child not breathing, according to documents. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead and doctors discovered suspicious, serious injuries.
“Columbus Police Homicide Unit was notified after doctors at Children’s Hospital found numerous broken bones,” authorities wrote in documents. “Some broken bones were healing fractures and the right leg was an acute fracture.”
Officers said they brought in Dawson and March in for questioning. The couple allegedly said they had no idea how Smith received his injuries, but they suggested other children in the home could have been responsible.
“Ms. Dawson did not know how M.S. received so many broken bones and claimed that the other three-year-old children may have been to blame,” detectives wrote in the probable cause affidavit against the mother. “Ms. Dawson was released pending further investigation.”
Authorities did not identify these other children, but Marquel’s father, Georgia resident DeShawn Smith, denied that his two daughters, who also lived with Dawson, were responsible.
“They loved their bubby,” he told WRGT on Thursday during the search for his ex-wife Dawson and her boyfriend March. “They would get on you, a grown person, for messing with him. That makes that statement.”
The “further investigation” ended with a doctor reaching a pivotal conclusion: Marquel Smith’s death was homicide. The Franklin County Coroner’s Office did the autopsy on Wednesday, documents stated. They determined that Smith died from blunt force trauma. The doctor who performed the autopsy said Smith suffered from “brain bleed and several bruises on the subdermal skull,” police said. The child’s “numerous broken bones were consistent with abuse and not accidental in nature,” the autopsy determined.
NEW: A difficult conversation with the father of Marquel Smith, the 8-month-old baby boy who was killed earlier this week. The baby’s mom and boyfriend, charged with murder, are still at large. Dashawn Smith shares the moment he found out his son had died. @wsyx6 @fox28columbus pic.twitter.com/iyfiul9LIP
— Kate Siefert (@KateWSYX6) January 12, 2023
Dawson and March surrendered in Perry County, according to WTTE. That was reportedly in the mother’s hometown of New Straitsville.
“That’s an area that she knew a lot of people, most likely seen her,” DeShawn Smith told the outlet. “They weren’t going to get far, just knowing their situation, with the people around them, and stuff like that, they weren’t going to make it that far.”
