Family says baby's death may have been prevented

By: WSLS-TV Staff Reports | WSLS-TV 10
Published: February 13, 2008

Family members say the death of 14 month old Evan Tucker McFalls, could’ve been prevented.
Saturday, emergency crews were called to a home in Montgomery County for a baby that wasn’t breathing.
28 year old William Shelton, was arrested and charged with felony child abuse and second degree murder.
Cathy Sowers, Tucker’s grandmother, says social services was called a week before his death.
According to Sowers, the baby was taken to the New River Valley Medical Center by his mother and her boyfriend Shelton, with several bruises on his body.
Lt. Norman Croy with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s office says the doctor contacted social services who called his office.
After speaking to the child’s mother and Shelton, investigators found no criminal abuse of the child and said it was more of a “rough play” situation.
Croy says social services put a safety plan in place.
According to the grandmother, Shelton was told “not to be around the children”.
Linda Nibet, director of social services in Montgomery county, couldn’t talk about the case specifically because it’s still under investigation, but says safety plans include finding relatives or friends of the family the child can stay with until their investigation is over.
Sowers says the safety plan wasn’t taken seriously enough by the child’s mother, “The mother called and said that William was moving in with her and I said how is that? He's not allowed to be around the kids. And she said oh yeah, they said he could come back.”
According to Sowers, that conversation took place Thursday, the baby died that weekend.
“I said to the mother that he's either going to hurt one of those children, because I mean it was obvious abuse...he had done it. Or he's going to kill one of them. I'm trying not to have hate ‘cause hate will eat you up but I feel like William, the mother and social services let Tucker down.”
Shelton remains at the Montgomery regional jail, investigators say they’re not anticipating any charges against his mother at this time.

Family says baby's death may have been prevented

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