Survivor of 35W bridge suspected of child abuse

[question everything]

StarTribune.com
Survivor of 35W bridge suspected of child abuse

By Joy Powell, Star Tribune

Last update: August 07, 2007 – 1:01 AM

Recently, Michael Stoner and his fiancée, Crystal Manning, appeared on television to tell their harrowing tale of plunging to the Mississippi River in their car after the I-35W bridge collapsed. The couple spoke of how they had been on their way to Children's Hospital in Minneapolis to see the fiancé's 2-year-old daughter -- whom, they had told everybody, had fallen down stairs earlier in the day at their home near Spooner, Wis.

But on Monday evening, Stoner, a 26-year-old felon, was being held on suspicion of felony child abuse and a probation violation. Authorities say 2-year-old Emmaline Manning is in grave condition with brain injuries consistent with shaken-baby syndrome. "She was downgraded from critical to grave today," Washburn County District Attorney Michael Bitney said Monday evening. Bitney added: "She's on life support. We don't know if she'll survive the week."

The toddler also has a long burn on one leg, a human bite mark and bruises in various stages of healing, Bitney said. He plans to file a felony child abuse charge against Stoner by week's end, though he could face homicide charges if Emmaline doesn't survive. Stoner is being held in the Washburn County jail. Doctors are taking drastic measures as they try to save the child, Bitney said. "They've cut off half her skull to allow the brain to swell. It's horrendous."

(snip)

"He was the only one with her the day she was injured," Bitney said of Stoner, who is not the toddler's father. "He had dropped the mother off at work early that morning. Then he came back, and in early afternoon claimed the child had fallen down the stairs."

(snip)

After the bridge collapse, the couple garnered sympathy for their plight -- a 2-year-old in the hospital and parents who nearly die on their way to see her. Crystal Manning told reporters how touched she was to find her daughter's blanket floating after the couple surfaced from the Mississippi River bottom, where their car remains. Stoner has a history of arrests and was on probation for a 2003 burglary conviction in Wisconsin's Burnett County.

(snip)

http://www.startribune.com/467/story/1347876.html

[hedgehog]

1. Well, i would have been suprised had he announced to the media that they were on the way

to the hospital to see the child he'd beaten.

[DS1]

2. kids fall down the stairs a lot, don't they

and they typically bounce right back up after the parents' hearts stop beating for a minute

[Fenris]

3. Ugh.

[mikelgb]

4. nothing is black and white

[damntexdem]

5. It was obviously a miracle that he came through alive!

;-)