A baby was beaten to death in her Delaware County home last month, and no one has been arrested
Police have told the family little about the investigation into Li’Aziah Thomas’ death, the family said. Her father and grandmother have hired a lawyer to try to get answers.
When Michele Rice talks about Li’Aziah Thomas, the youngest of her 10 grandchildren, she smiles as she recalls the animated conversations the 18-month-old used to have on her toy cell phone, a Christmas gift Rice gave the child that lights up when numbers are touched.
“You just gonna be on the phone all day?” Rice said she’d ask the girl, the daughter of her son Anthony Thomas.
Then her voice cracked and she began to cry as reality overtook the memories.
It’s been more than a month since Rice got an early-morning phone call from a relative telling her that Li’Aziah had died in the cramped, two-story walk-up apartment with broken windows where she lived with her mother, Kandie Meinhart, 31, her mother’s boyfriend, and three older children.
Meinhart told police she wasn’t home in the early hours of Jan. 20 and had left the children in the care of friends. She said she didn’t learn of the child’s death until the next morning.
Rice learned the news later that morning and rushed to the apartment. Police officers stationed outside the Chester City residence perched atop a rundown convenience store on Pine Lane would not let Rice see her granddaughter’s body. So she stood watching police and medics going up and down the rusted metal staircase in the rear of the building leading to the apartment, not knowing how Li’Aziah (pronounced Lee Asia) had died.
The family would later learn that the child was beaten to death. The Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that the manner of death was blunt-force trauma and severe blood loss, and called the case a homicide. Chester police continue to investigate, along with the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office.
“It’s a very active investigation,” DA Jack Stollsteimer said last week. “As soon as we have it concluded, we will be making an announcement. We take our time and do it right.”
Police have made no arrests and have told the family little about the investigation, they said. Rice and her son have hired A.J. Thomson, a Center City lawyer, to try to get answers in the absence of information from police.
“I know that some law enforcement personnel are working diligently,” said Thomson, of the Center City firm of Edelstein Law LLP. “However ... a child murderer and maybe some accomplices are walking around with not a care in the world.”
Rice said it pains her to think of her granddaughter’s last helpless moments. “She was defenseless. She couldn’t even scream for help because she can’t say ‘help,’” she said, sobbing. “Nobody could have come to her rescue. She could only speak little words.”
Rice and Thomas are not on good terms with Meinhart, the child’s mother. Thomas, who said he was coparenting Li’Aziah with Meinhart, who had custody of the child, has had an acrimonious relationship with her since a breakup.
In a brief phone interview, Meinhart, a fast-food manager, said she was not home when her daughter died, and she doesn’t know what happened.
“I was at work. I came home, I went to sleep and I found her the next morning. Well, my daughter carried her to me the next morning,” she said.
“I don’t even know what’s going on with the case. They keep telling me I have to wait for an autopsy,” she said, before adding that her lawyer told her not to speak to anyone and hanging up.
Rice and Thomas remain frustrated by the lack of answers in the case. To law enforcement officials, Thomas asked: “What are y’all going to do? I want to know.”
Said Rice, who has been too grief-stricken to return to work since Li’Aziah’s death: “When you are at home, that’s supposed to be the safest place you can be. No matter who you are. No matter how old you are.”