Death of city girl is ruled homicide

The 12-year-old, who was in foster care, was beaten before she was found unconscious in her bedroom, officials say.

Keith Mayer

Reading Eagle

A 12-year-old Reading girl who died in September was beaten with a broomstick shortly before she died, officials said Thursday. On Thursday, Dr. Nicholas Bybel, Berks County coroner, ruled the death of Amira Brown a homicide. Brown, a seventh-grader at Southwest Middle School, was dead on arrival in Reading Hospital on Sept. 4. She had been found unconscious in her residence at 630 Summit Ave., where she was in foster care. Brown had suffered cardio-respiratory collapse caused by a beating and physical restraint, according to Bybel, who declined to elaborate. Months of medical testing were needed before the ruling was made, officials said. No charges have been filed. The investigation continues.

Police will confer with District Attorney Mark C. Baldwin next week about possible criminal charges, said Capt. Francis F. Drexler of the Reading police criminal investigations division.

“The investigation has been extensive since she was found,” he said. “We had treated it as a suspicious death from the beginning. We’d been waiting for the cause of death before taking the next step.”

Brown’s foster mother, Barbara Martin, found the girl lying face up on the floor beside her bed about 7 p.m., police said.

Martin said Thursday that she was not home when Brown was beaten.

Another adult was in the house, according to police and Martin, but they would not elaborate.

Brown was hit three times in the head with the broomstick, according to sources.

She then went to her bedroom, where the unidentified adult checked on her a few minutes later and saw her alive, sources said.

Martin said she came home, went to the bedroom a short time later to give Brown prescription medication and found her unconscious.

Police declined to provide further details of the crime. Sources said Brown had an extensive psychiatric history. Recently, she had been prescribed therapeutic medications, they said. She also was prone to physical and verbal outbursts, the sources said. Pennsylvania Mentor, a private foster-care placement agency in Wescosville, Lehigh County, placed Brown with Martin on Jan. 14, Martin said. “There is no comment on that,” said a woman who answered the phone at the agency’s office Thursday. “That’s it. End of story.” She would not identify herself. Pennsylvania Mentor is a division of National Mentor Healthcare Inc. David Buckley, Pennsylvania Mentor’s state director, could not be reached for comment. Previously, he called the death a tragedy. Martin said she was sad about Brown’s death. “It’s a big tragedy to me,” she said. “We were very close.” Martin said she and Brown shopped and did other things together. Martin also said Brown got along with her three children, 14, 10 and 4 years old. She did not provide the names of her children. Martin said she has had no desire to have foster children since Brown’s death. The slaying was the 24th in the city and the 25th overall in the county.