Homicide hearings continued for Point Marion couple
?A preliminary hearing was continued for a fifth time Friday for a Point Marion couple charged with homicide in the death of their toddler.
State police Trooper Timothy Kirsch said Robert David Dodson, 55, and Tammy Jo Bohon, 35, were each charged before Magisterial District Judge Ronald J. Haggerty Jr. with criminal homicide and endangering the welfare of a child following the death of their daughter, Madison Violet Dodson.
Police said Robert Dodson had left the 15-month-old girl to sleep on the living room floor amongst animal feces and garbage around 11?p.m. Jan. 5, while the toddler’s mother was smoking crack cocaine in Masontown. The girl was found dead by Dodson the following morning, police said.
The hearing is now expected to be held in late July before Magisterial District Judge Jesse Cramer.
Last month, Dodson’s daughter, Darlene Dodson Schoolfield, spoke about the case, her father and Bohon.
“My dad and Tammy are not animals. They are not animals… I truly believe it was a freak accident and now they are getting the blame for it,” Schoolfield said.
According to Kirsch, officers were called to the couple’s residence at 601 Morgantown St. after Fayette County 911 received a call that Madison Dodson was unresponsive early Jan. 6.
Deputy Coroner Philip Rishel pronounced Madison Dodson dead at the residence at 7?a.m.
A preliminary autopsy conducted by forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril H. Wecht revealed the girl died of dehydration and malnutrition at the residence that police said was littered with animal and human feces, ripped open trash bags and cigarette butts.
Madison Dodson was a “critical care case” when she was brought home from the hospital following her birth, Kirsch said, and required extra medical attention.
Robert Dodson told investigators that he had been meeting away from his residence with a family member to discuss bills when Bohon called him and told him the feeding tube had been dislodged and also advised him that their daughter was repeatedly vomiting and defecating, Kirsch said.
Robert Dodson told police that he then returned to the residence around 5?p.m. and discovered that Bohon had already left the home. Robert Dodson told police that Bohon had left Madison Dodson and his other children in the care of his oldest child living at the residence, who is 16, Kirsch said.
Kirsch said Robert Dodson and Bohon, who have been together for 17 years, have seven other children together. Madison Dodson was the couple’s youngest child.
Kirsch said that Robert Dodson then tried to repair his daughter’s feeding tube but did not have the proper equipment.
He told police that he found a substitute piece of equipment to temporarily fix the feeding tube and then placed Madison Dodson on the living room floor for the night around 11?p.m.
Kirsch said that Robert Dodson told investigators that when he awoke shortly after 5?a.m., he found his daughter unresponsive.
Kirsch said that while police were at the home Jan. 6, Bohon arrived around 11?a.m.
She told police that she had left her daughter in the care of her oldest daughter around 3:30?p.m. because she knew Robert Dodson was on his way home.
Kirsch said Bohon told police that she didn’t intend to be gone from her home long when she left the afternoon of Jan. 5 and said that she “figured that she would take Madison Dodson to the hospital later.”
Instead, Kirsch said Bohon met up with a man in Masontown where she smoked crack and then fell asleep.
Kirsch said that Bohon also told police that her cell phone died so she wasn’t able to check on her daughter’s condition.
Kirsch said the couple’s other children were taken from the home and remain in protective care.
Both Dodson and Bohon remain in the Fayette County Prison without bond.