Mount Juliet Child Dies; Police Investigate

By Cynthia Williams

MOUNT JULIET, Tenn. -- A 4-year-old Mount Juliet girl, who was recently adopted from China, has died, and investigators said there were "obvious signs of abuse."

An ambulance was called to a home located along Laurel Hill Drive in the Autumn Ridge subdivision July 1. Later, two Mount Juliet police officers arrived and observed what they described as obvious signs of abuse to a 4-year-old girl who lived at the home.

A child was rushed to Summit Medical Center in Hermitage but died the next day at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.

The district attorney's office won't release the names of the child's parents, but Channel 4 News learned that a woman in the house, possibly the adopted mother, is a pediatrician who works in Lebanon.

Word of the girl's death stunned neighbors who live in the suburban neighborhood.

"It's just shocking. How does something like that happen?” said neighbor Ken Vorhies. "First of all, you can hardly believe something like that happens in general, but if it happens in your neighborhood, it's a little scary."

An 8-year-old girl also lived at the home of the family that's being investigated. She is living with someone else while police investigate the death of the 4-year-old girl.

The child who died was adopted from China in April.