FOSTER MOTHER FACES CHARGES OF MURDER IN TODDLER'S DEATH

The Buffalo News

A Lisbon Avenue foster mother was to be arraigned this morning in Erie County Court on two counts of second-degree murder in the death of a 21-month-old girl.Arthurlein Holcomb, 35, is charged with the death on Saturday of Jaymaya Auls

Detective Mark Stambach of the Homicide Squad said the baby's death was ruled a homicide by the Erie County medical examiner's office. The manner of death has not been disclosed.

Police were called to the house on Lisbon at 6 p.m. Saturday after the child stopped breathing. Officials from the Erie County Department of Social Services took custody of the woman's 10-year-old daughter and a second foster child, a 4-year-old boy.

Stambach said Holcomb was charged with the second murder count under a section of law in which a foster mother is 18 and the victim is under 11 years of age.