A nursery worker has been accused of killing a nonverbal boy with a weighted blanket.
Tiffany Hedrick was indicted by a grand jury following the death of three-year-old Conrad Ashcraft on 16 May.
Hedrick, 40, is charged with abuse or neglect of a child resulting in death, armed criminal action, and second-degree murder, according to the Jefferson County Prosecutor’s Office.
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The indictment alleges that the child was “killed by asphyxiation” after Hedrick placed him in a weighted blanket, leaving him face down and with his arms “immobilised”.
Ashcraft was reportedly found when his mother came to pick him up from Poppy’s Playhouse 2 in Park Hills, Missouri, as reported by Need To Know.
The indictment, obtained by People, alleges that Hedrick “knowingly caused the child to suffer physical injury” and that the child “died as a result of injuries sustained from this conduct” with the aid of a “dangerous instrument, namely a weighted blanket”.
According to a petition for wrongful death, filed by the child’s father, Joshua Achcraft, Hedrick allegedly caused the boy’s death by placing him on his back while tucking the sides of the blanket under his body, leaving him unable to use his arms.
When he struggled, she allegedly turned him onto his stomach.
The blanket reportedly weighed 18.2lbs, and did not belong to the family, but was reportedly used by staff to “subdue small children at naptime”, according to the petition.
Hedrick, who was the director of Poppy’s Playhouse, allegedly put the child in the hallway and, when he stopped struggling, failed to check on him until she left the centre at 2pm.
The child’s mother, Tara Williams, also filed a lawsuit about the company, alleging that an unnamed employee “applied weight and pressure” to the child’s chest and/or abdomen while he was lying down, “in order to subdue him in an effort to sleep”.
Family members told local press that Conrad was nonverbal with autism.
He is remembered in his obituary as loving swimming, Toy Story, pizza, and spending time with his parents and family.
Hedrick was arrested and is currently being held in the St. Francois County jail without bond.
Her attorney confirmed to People that they have entered a plea of not guilty.
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