DECATUR, Ill. (WAND)- A Macon County coroner’s jury ruled the death of 2-year-old Ta’Naja Barnes a homicide Wednesday.
Barnes died Feb. 11, after being found unresponsive in her family’s Decatur home. Police said the child was so cold medical workers could not measure her body temperature; she was also dirty and malnourished, they said.
The child’s mother, Twanka Davis, and her mother’s live-in boyfriend, Anthony Myers, both face murder charges in her death. Both have pleaded not guilty.
During Wednesday’s inquest, Detective James Rigley said the family had functional heat and water service but had turned both off within the home. He again said the family had reported removing a heater from Barnes’ room and putting it in the room Davis and Myers shared with Barnes’ brother.
An autopsy found Barnes’ immediate cause of death to be cold exposure resulting from environmental neglect with contributing factors of dehydration and malnourishment due to neglect.
