Baby’s death shocks Limestone residents

LIMESTONE – Teairra Leathers shouldn’t have died.

The 20-month-old child with curly, blond hair and big, blue eyes was healthy and alert on Monday evening a week ago when her mother dropped her off at Heather Fortin’s house. Fifteen minutes later, the little girl was lying nearly unconscious on her baby sitter’s couch, laboring for breath, according to an affidavit.

She was rushed to the hospital but died the next day from severe, acute trauma to the head – the kind of injury that couldn’t have been caused by a simple fall, according to the state medical examiner’s office.

Police believe that in the minutes before Fortin called 911, something went terribly wrong.

But Fortin, 23, of Limestone has denied causing the baby any harm. She was arrested Wednesday and charged with manslaughter.

Local residents were reeling Thursday from news of the death.

“It’s just a shock,” Marlene Durepo, Limestone’s town clerk, said Thursday. “People knew something had happened last week. We had a lot of detectives around. But nothing was ever said about it until the arrest was made yesterday. And then we heard about the manslaughter charge on the news this morning.”

Limestone Police Chief Stacey Mahan said Thursday that this is the first homicide case the town has seen in a very long time; it may be the first manslaughter case of its kind in Limestone.

Fortin’s arrest warrant states that she “did recklessly, or with criminal negligence, cause the death of another human being, Teairra Leathers.” Her bail was set at $200,000 surety or $50,000 cash with the condition that she have no contact with any child under 5. She remained Thursday at the Aroostook County Jail in Houlton and is expected to make her first court appearance by video this morning.

According to the affidavit, Fortin had watched Rena Leathers’ children many times before. Leathers, 22, has a 3-year-old daughter named Skylee who often played with Fortin’s little girl, Keegan. Fortin’s daughter, who is not yet 2, now is staying with a relative.

At about 9 a.m. on June 18, Leathers told police, Fortin stopped by her house on Main Street to ask whether both girls could come over to play with her daughter. Leathers allowed Skylee to go, but Teairra needed to stay for a home visit from the Family Builders program with the Aroostook Mental Health Center. At about 6:30 p.m., Leathers and her boyfriend of one year, Shayne Ellis, brought Teairra to Fortin’s Huggard Avenue residence because they needed to attend a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. Several witnesses told police that Teairra was acting normally when Leathers left her daughter with Fortin.

Fortin told police she had just changed the little girl’s diaper when she “jumped up like she was scared by something” and grabbed hold of her neck. Fortin said the baby’s arms were flapping and that she “just stopped moving and just took deep breaths.”

At 6:46 p.m., Fortin called 911 for an ambulance. Teairra was taken to Cary Medical Center in Caribou and from there was transferred by LifeFlight helicopter to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

Detective Sgt. John Cote of the Maine State Police said Thursday that the criminal investigation division was notified about the case early on June 19. He said EMMC officials called police after they realized the child was exhibiting seizure symptoms as a result of head trauma. Cote said Teairra’s condition deteriorated throughout the day and that she died at EMMC on Tuesday, July 19.

The next day, according to the affidavit, Fortin called police saying she had just remembered that Teairra had fallen off her mother’s lap when she picked up Skylee on June 18. She said the little girl fell directly backward onto the floor, hitting the back of her head hard, and started to cry. The affidavit said Fortin used a doll to re-enact Teairra’s reported fall and that “when she got to the part of Teairra falling, [she] picked up the doll and threw it hard onto the floor.” Fortin could not explain why she did not remember the event during her first interview with police.

Rena Leathers later told police that Teairra never fell from her lap and that her little girl had no head injuries when she left with Fortin.

On June 26, police interviewed Fortin for a third time to explain the autopsy results. A detective told her that, in the opinion of the medical examiner’s office, Teairra’s injuries must have occurred in Fortin’s apartment in the minutes before Fortin called 911. Fortin said she did not drop the girl, slam her on the floor, trip and fall on her, or slip with her in her arms. She said she did nothing to harm the baby and had no explanation of how she received her injuries.

Fortin was arrested the next day.

Detective Sgt. Cote said the state police have no other suspects in the case.

“The explanation that’s been given does not fit the medical evidence that’s been presented to us,” he said. “We receive information from people and then compare it with the facts and the evidence. Then we determine whether an explanation is plausible or not. We used that same type of scenario in this case.”