OPELIKA, Ala. (TCD) — Police recently arrested a 32-year-old mother and her 29-year-old live-in friend after an infant was found deceased in their home this week.
According to a news release from the Opelika Police Department, on Tuesday, Feb. 20, shortly after midnight, officers responded to the 200 block of 24th Street in reference to an unresponsive 1-year-old boy. The victim, identified by AL.com as Ezekiel Narville, was transported to East Alabama Medical Center and later pronounced dead.
Police identified the victim’s mother, Dorothy Hight, and her friend, Seth Kendrick, as the primary suspects in the boy’s death. Officers arrested the pair, and they were each charged with capital murder.
The Alabama Department of Forensic Science will conduct an autopsy on the child’s body. However, Opelika Police Capt. John Hester reportedly said the boy sustained apparent physical injuries.
In a statement obtained by AL.com, Hester said, “We take all homicides seriously, but when it’s a kid, it is worse. Most of us have children, and these cases are harder to work. It takes a toll.”
Kendrick and Hight remain held in the Lee County Jail. The investigation is ongoing.
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