This article by Anna Merriman was published by the Valley News on Nov. 26.
HARTFORD — A Windsor man and his girlfriend were supposed to be looking after his 18-month-old daughter when she drowned during an outing at the White River this summer, but instead, they were drinking alcohol on the beach and then lied to investigators about their actions, according to police.
Isaac McEwan, 21, and Laura Shaw, 28, of Hartford, were each arraigned on one count of abandoning or endangering a child and one count of obstruction of justice Tuesday and were released without bail. They were ordered not to discuss the case with each other.
The charges follow a months-long investigation into the events of July 20, when a day berry picking and swimming ended in the death of McEwan’s younger daughter, Heaven Lindon McEwan.
Police say McEwan and Shaw did not take proper safety precautions for the toddler — including failing to give her a life jacket — and tried to hinder a police investigation afterward by providing false information to officers, according to an affidavit written by Hartford Police Officer Sean Fernandes that was filed in Windsor Superior Court last month.
McEwan and Shaw, who had been dating for a couple of months, brought Heaven and her 2-year-old sister to go swimming underneath the Quechee-West Hartford Bridge, according to Fernandes’ affidavit.
They were joined by two friends, and the four adults spent the early evening swimming and drinking Twisted Teas on the beach before McEwan realized his younger daughter was missing, the affidavit said. He found Heaven floating in the river underneath the bridge, and pulled her from the water, according to police. First responders arrived around 6 p.m. and took the girl to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, where she was placed on life support. Heaven was pronounced dead several days later.
Hartford police interviewed McEwan, who denied consuming alcohol, a violation of his probation in connection with a careless vehicle operation conviction.
McEwan told police that he was berry-picking with his older daughter in a patch near the river when Heaven came to join them. McEwan said he looked turned away for less than a minute and when he looked back she was gone. He told police he searched the beach for about a minute before he found her in the water.
Shaw’s initial statement corroborated McEwan’s version of events. She told police that she was in the water with Heaven while McEwan was berry picking.
Shaw said the girl left the water to go see her dad, so she left to check her phone, but when she looked up 30 seconds later, the toddler was missing, according to the affidavit.
Police found inconsistencies in the couple’s story, starting with the timeframe.
Both McEwan and Shaw said Heaven was missing for a minute or less, but medical providers at DHMC’s Pediatric Unit told police that the child’s condition was consistent with someone who had been in the water for a longer period of time, according to the affidavit.
Additionally, the couple claimed they were at the river for just 30 minutes before calling for help, but police found a box of Twisted Tea — a tea-flavored alcoholic beverage — at the scene, which included four full cans, two half-full cans and “multiple empty cans spread throughout the beach,” the affidavit said.
A witness, John Tidwell, who said he visited the river around the time of the incident, told police that he saw the young girl floating in the water, and her older sister running to tell her father.
When asked if the adults were watching the children, Tidwell said no, that they were “standing on the bank, hanging out.”
Police also interviewed Cassandra Shea, one of the friends who joined McEwan and Shaw on July 20. She told police that Shaw was in the water with Heaven, but she left at one point, got two Twisted Teas, and “shotgunned” the drinks with Shea on the bank. After she was done, Shaw asked “Where’s the baby?” prompting the search for the missing toddler, according to the affidavit.
Shea also said that Shaw and McEwan told her to lie to police about Shaw’s alcohol consumption. She said McEwan “coached” her before her interview with police to tell investigators she drank all of the alcohol herself.
“Just tell them that you were too drunk to remember anything,” she quoted McEwan as saying, according to the affidavit.
Initially, police cited McEwan and Shaw in October for abandonment/exposure of a baby, two counts of cruelty to a child, obstruction of justice, and providing false information to a police officer.
The charges have since been reduced to abandoning a child and obstruction of justice.
Shaw declined to comment when reached by phone Tuesday.
A probation officer claims the citation constitutes a violation of McEwan’s probation, according to a complaint filed last month.
McEwan was convicted in May with operating a vehicle carelessly after he crashed his truck into a snowbank while driving with a suspended license, according to court documents. He received a suspended zero to 12-month sentence, which could be put into place if the court determines he has violated his probation.
McEwan’s former girlfriend, Teresa Terrazas, who is the mother of Heaven and the 2-year-old, has primary custody of the older girl and had primary custody of Heaven at the time of her death, according to court documents.
In an interview Tuesday, Terrazas said she trusted McEwan, who had been her boyfriend of four years, with their daughter. Now, she said, she wants justice for her child, whom she described as funny and outgoing.
“There were four adults there. But nobody had their eyes on my daughter and she slipped into the river,” Terrazas said on the phone Tuesday. “They’re getting a slap on the wrist for what happened.”
She added that she was angry to learn that McEwan and Shaw took Heaven to the river, saying that the currents are too strong for a child, especially a child who’s not wearing a life jacket.
Currently, their older daughter still visits McEwan every other weekend, but Terrazas said she’s trying to get full custody, out of fear for her daughter’s safety
In October, she filed a relief-from-abuse complaint with the Family Division of Windsor County Superior Court, requesting that McEwan be barred from contacting their daughter.
She said she believes her daughter is in immediate danger following the White River incident, and told police that prior to her younger daughter’s death, McEwan had threatened that he “was going to take the girls and (she) would never see them again.”
Terrazas said the months since her daughter’s death have been difficult for her and her surviving daughter, who asks every so often if her sister is “still in the ambulance” or “still in the hospital.”
“It’s hard. Sleeping, eating, trying to do anything. It’s hard,” she said.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Toddler’s drowning leads to charges against father and his girlfriend.