Background: The home in Little Rock, Ark., where Erin Sauls ran a day care center (KATV). Inset (left): Erin Sauls (Little Rock Police Department). Inset (right): Elijah Flowerday (GoFundMe).
An Arkansas woman faces a capital murder charge in the death of an 8-month-old baby whom she allegedly slammed against the floor.
Erin Sauls, 23, was running a day care center at her home in Little Rock, Arkansas, where she was responsible for a handful of children. On Tuesday, she was watching 8-month-old Elijah Flowerday. According to an arrest report obtained by local ABC affiliate KATV, officers from the Little Rock Police Department responded to a call that morning from Sauls’ address, saying that a baby had stopped breathing.
The boy was taken to Arkansas Children’s Hospital and pronounced dead on arrival.
Police said Elijah had sustained “a skull fracture and multiple brain bleeds,” according to the arrest report. Sauls told officers that while she was changing Elijah’s diaper, she “[struck] the infant’s head three times against the hardwood floor.” Her explanation for her alleged actions was that she “was frustrated and had a headache.”
Sauls was arrested on Wednesday and charged with capital murder. She was denied bail and remains in custody at the Pulaski County Detention Facility. Her next court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 27.
Local NBC affiliate KARK spoke with Aliyah Fulton, who used Sauls’ day care for her two toddler-aged children last July. She stopped bringing them there when Sauls started canceling on her, but she gave her a second chance a few months later. But Fulton told KARK, “Something was telling me literally on my car ride home to pick up my boys, like don’t go back to her.” She stopped using Sauls’ service in October 2025.
Fulton also told KARK that other parents said Sauls was allegedly caring for more than five children at her home, which is against the law for an unlicensed day care operator. According to Sauls’ neighbors, who spoke to KATV, they did not believe she had more than five children at a time.
While Fulton called Sauls a “really sweet person,” she said that if she were convicted of the charge against her, Sauls deserved “prison for life. She doesn’t deserve to see the light of day again.”
The Flowerday family started a GoFundMe for Elijah’s funeral expenses.
