Bradford Fire & Rescue responded Monday to an East Vine Street home on a report of a child not breathing.
The child, later identified as Caelyn Colon, was resuscitated and taken to Upper Valley Medical Center, according to the Miami County Sheriff’s Office. She later was transferred to Dayton Children’s Hospital and pronounced dead on Tuesday. Her cause and manner of death have not been determined at this time, according to the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office.
“A criminal investigation was initiated by Miami County Sheriff’s detectives due to doctors concluding that the injuries present on the child were suspected abuse,” the sheriff’s office stated in a release.
In two 9-1-1 calls obtained by the Dayton Daily News, callers both mentioned the girl had health issues. In one call, a woman who identified herself as the girl’s mother, told 9-1-1 dispatchers the girl was born at 33 weeks, had an underdeveloped hip and aspiration issues.
The other call was placed by a man who didn’t identity himself, but said he was home alone with the child when she stopped breathing.
He told the dispatcher the girl was on the couch when she started to doze off and fell. He also said that he was performing CPR on the girl.
Later in the call, he said she was breathing again and had started to move.
Mize was on parole with the Ohio Adult Parole Authority at the time of the incident. Formerly a New Carlisle resident, he was convicted in June 2019 of trafficking cocaine, according to Clark County Common Pleas Court records.