Dogs euthanized after Knox County baby found dead

MOUNT VERNON - Two dogs, "pit bull, or a pit bull mix," were euthanized after a father accused them Wednesday of killing his one-month-old baby.

The bodies of the two dogs will be examined for evidence in the baby's death, Knox County Sheriff David Shaffer said Thursday morning in a press release.

The baby's body was scheduled for an autopsy sometime Thursday in Licking County, according to Knox County Prosecutor Chip McConville.

"The autopsy is going to be pretty important in this case to figure out what happened," McConville said.

The incident was called in to dispatchers just after 6 a.m. Wednesday. The baby was found dead in a home along Ohio 3, about seven miles north of Mount Vernon in Pike Township.

McConville said it appears the baby's father woke up to find the infant's dead body.

"That would be the takeaway that you would have from the 911 call," McConville said.

But his office still has very few facts. McConville said the father and the baby were home alone with the two dogs at the time of the incident. The names of the baby and the father are not yet being released.

The laboratory will perform a toxicology study on the baby's body, which McConville said is standard procedure to determine "whether or not there was some substance that was present in the child at the time of the child's death."

Due to an increase in drug-related deaths around the state, McConville said that toxicology report and the complete autopsy could take up to 8 weeks to complete.

A preliminary report could be ready as soon as Friday, the prosecutor said. It's possible detectives can move forward on their investigation based alone on that abbreviated version of the autopsy.

"It's going to depend on what it says," McConville said. "We are really being guided in certain parts of this by what the laboratory people are going to tell us."

The sheriff said his office will continue to handle the investigation with the help of the Knox County Coroner’s Office and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

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