John Jefferson
Inset: Chantell Gardner (Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department). Background: The room where Gardner’s 2-year-old daughter was found dead (Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department).
A 33-year-old mother in Indiana originally charged with child neglect is now facing upgraded charges of murder for allegedly killing her 2-year-old daughter, who froze to death after being left unattended in the family’s unheated apartment — which was riddled with feces, garbage, and other filth — for more than 24 hours.
Chantell Gardner is now facing one count of murder and one count of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury in the horrific death of Skyler Gardner, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Brian Thomas, whose home Gardner would sleep at nearly every night while the victim and her 4-year-old brother were left alone, was also arrested and charged with two counts of assisting a criminal for allegedly lying to investigators.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Gardner at about 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 25 called 911 and told the dispatcher that she’d found her 2-year-old daughter unresponsive and “cold to the touch” under a bedroom dresser, the affidavit says.
Gardner told police she came to the apartment to feed her kids and while her son came to her, Skyler did not. That’s what led to the grim discovery. She said she grabbed her son and ran outside to call 911. Paramedics responded to the home and pronounced Skylar dead. She had been deceased for some time as rigor mortis had set in, the affidavit said.
Following a preliminary examination, doctors said they believe Skyler’s cause of death was hypothermia.
The girl’s body was covered in patterned bruising and bite marks that appeared to be the result of physical abuse, police said. An examination conducted by the Coroner’s Office found a “large puncture wound” on the child’s neck which was believed to have been caused by a rodent after Skyler was already dead, according to report from Indianapolis ABC affiliate WRTV. She also had hair and what appeared to be feces in her stomach.
Police performed a walk-through of the home and “observed trash scattered, human feces, steak knives and soiled items on the floor to the point it was not visible,” the affidavit said. They also found feces on the wall and rotting food throughout.
Authorities said the temperature inside the home ranged from 46 to 51 degrees while is was about 32 degrees outside. That meant it would have likely been even colder in the home during the time the children had been left alone.
Post-Miranda, Gardner said she “knew she neglected” her daughter. She claimed it would be typical for her to leave her two kids alone for hours on end, only coming to their aid once a day to feed them. Gardner said she hadn’t bathed one of her kids for nearly two weeks and would often find them with feces on their hands and feet.
She reportedly explained that she stopped taking the kids to doctors appointments and then bringing them out in public altogether because they smelled so bad that she knew her neglect would be easily discoverable.
Gardner allegedly told police that she knew the furnace to heat the home was broken, but said she did not call anyone to fix it because, “due to the cleanliness of the residence and because they would have known the children were alone/ unattended,” police wrote, according to Indianapolis Fox affiliate WXIN.
“[S]he tried cleaning the walls and maintaining things, but it became too overwhelming,” the affidavit reportedly states. “She eventually ‘strayed’ away from the home altogether due to the smell inside the house.”
Police reportedly said the home was in such bad condition that it was considered a “biohazard.”
Gardner insisted that despite neglecting Skyler, she never physically harmed or sexually abused her, the affidavit said.
Gardner’s boyfriend confirmed her account. He said she spent each night at his home, and almost never had the children with her. They were with her “once a week at most,” he told police. It was not immediately clear what he is alleged to have lied about to police.
Gardner under arrest and took her to the Marion County Jail where she is being held without bond. Thomas was ordered to remain on home detention and wear a GPS tracking device after posting bond of $6,000.
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