Autopsy finds traumatic injury on 2-year-old in Canton foster home

Probe of her death goes on, police say

Jack Kresnak

Detroit Free Press

Sep. 26--An autopsy that began Monday on the body of a 2-year-old girl who died in a Canton Township foster home showed that she suffered a traumatic head injury, but it could not immediately determine whether the death was accidental or homicide, police said.

The child, Allison Newman, was found unresponsive and not breathing about 2 a.m.

Friday in a bedroom of the foster home licensed through Lutheran Social Services of Michigan.

She died early Saturday at the University of Michigan Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor.

An investigation into the death is continuing, said Canton police Sgt. Rick Pomorski.

Police said the girl's foster mother called 911 when she found the baby unresponsive and told them Allison had accidentally hit her head recently.

She had been a temporary ward of the Wayne County Family Court since she was removed from her biological mother's care in November 2004.

Police would not confirm the foster parents' names.

According to court records, Allison's biological mother, Ann Marie Hirsch, 26, and father, Kenneth Newman, 28, were addicted to crack cocaine when Allison was taken into foster care.

Officials alleged the couple didn't have a suitable home.

Newman was jailed in January 2005 and is serving sentences for resisting arrest, fleeing police, assault with a dangerous weapon and receiving and concealing stolen property.

Hirsch stopped visiting her daughter because a court referee had ordered that she could not have visits unless she submitted to random drug tests, the court records said.

When she came into foster care, Allison was described as a normal baby with no known medical problems, according to the records.

Lutheran Social Services of Michigan filed a petition to terminate the biological parents' rights to Allison in July, but no date was set after Hirsch's attorney could not provide the court with an address for his client.

The social service group's communications director, Barbara Lewis, said Monday that until proven otherwise the agency believes that the girl's death was an accident.

"At this point we don't suspect abuse of any kind," she said.

Contact JACK KRESNAK at 313-223-4544 or jkresnak@freepress.com.