HARBESON, DELAWARE (12/11/2015) A Harbeson couple have been charged with murder by abuse in the death of their infant son, Delaware State Police said this morning.
Doyle J. Hundley Jr., 37, and Casey R. Layton, 28, were arrested Thursday at their home in the 18000 block of Harbeson Road (Route 5).
Their son Aiden R. Hundley died at 8 months old on Sept. 22 at Nemours/A.I. DuPont Hospital for Children in Rockland. He had been hospitalized May 23 after Hundley called 911 reporting his son, then 3 months hold, was suffering from a seizure and unresponsive, police said.
The child was first taken by paramedics to Beebe Healthcare’s hospital in Lewes before being flown to the children’s hospital in critical condition with multiple broken bones and a serious head injury, police said. He had been kept on life support for five months.
An autopsy by the Delaware Division of Forensic Science ruled the death a homicide due to blunt force trauma to the head, police said.
Police said Aiden suffered numerous injuries during the two months he was in the care of his parents and they could offer no plausible explanation. They were the sole caregivers, police said.
The injuries were so severe, police said, they would have been obvious to any caregiver.
Hundley and Layton were being held by the Delaware Department of Correction in lieu of $106,000 cash bail each.
A 2½-year-old son of the couple, who police said did not appear to have been harmed, was placed in the care of the Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth and their Families.