No charges in death of foster child

A Michigan prosecutor has reviewed the death of a 4-year-old foster child who was in the custody of Chris and Becky Tucker and says he won't file criminal charges.

Branch County, Mich., prosecutor John Livesay told The Herald Journal in Logan that that there is no evidence to support a prosecution.The Tuckers are charged with second-degree felony child abuse for allegedly starving their adopted 7-year-old daughter, the dead child's half-sister, in the basement for months. They are set to go to trial in March.

The family moved to Trenton about a year ago from Coldwater, Mich. In December 1995, Danielle died when she reportedly fell down a flight of stairs at the family home.

Livesay said there was never a criminal investigation into the death of Danielle Tucker because the Michigan Family Independence Agency, the state agency in charge of investigating child abuse and neglect cases, never reviewed it. The agency also never forwarded information about the death to local law enforcement agencies.

Livesay said he looked into the matter in November when he heard the couple was being charged in Utah. But after reviewing the girl's autopsy report and talking with a Family Independence Agency official, he decided not to pursue charges.

"There just wasn't any evidence," he said.

Livesay said the Tuckers claimed Danielle had fetal alcohol syndrome and would have fits where she'd throw herself around and hit her head against the wall. They said she was required to wear a football helmet to prevent injuries. Livesay said that it wouldn't be unlikely for the child to fall down stairs.

However, the biological grandparents who cared for Danielle the first two and a half years of her life dispute that. Larry and Elizabeth Dornan of Battle Creek, Mich., said the girl had Down syndrome but didn't have to wear a football helmet. Nor did she hit her head against walls, said Elizabeth Dornan.

"I don't believe that death was an accident," Larry Dornan said.

State officials early last month took custody of a 7-year-old girl found locked in a basement of the Tucker's home. A state child abuse investigator testified at a preliminary hearing that the girl had been bathing in a trough of brown, rusty water and sleeping on bare bedsprings.

The girl, according to police, prosecutors and the Division of Child and Family Services, weighed just 32 pounds, appeared poorly nourished and had head lice.