Bruised Toddler Found Dead In Apartment; Mom Faces Murder Charges

A woman was arrested and charged with first and second-degree murder after her 3-year-old son was found unresponsive in an apartment in Washington state.

The toddler had several bruises and cuts across his body and appeared to have burn marks "on the entirety of his face," according to probable cause documents.

Police found the child dead at the Tacoma apartment Sunday night after the mother's friend called 911.

"South Sound 911 received a call from someone who said they'd heard from a friend there was an unresponsive child inside an apartment," TPD Public Information Officer Wendy Haddow was quoted as saying by KOMO News.

Tacoma Police Department officers arrived at around 7:30 p.m. and found the toddler lying unresponsive on the bed while his 1-year-old sibling was sitting next to him. After asking the mother to wait in the living room with the younger sibling, officers performed life-saving measures on the child but eventually pronounced him dead at the scene.

The 25-year-old mother, Ivey Marie Lewis, failed to provide details about the 16 hours leading up to the child being found with signs of abuse across his body. She was also "unable or unwilling" to name the other adults that were in the apartment prior to the child's death, KING 5 reported.

The mother claimed she found the boy unresponsive next to a heater and then carried him to the bedroom. Officers said the heater in the living room was on its highest temperature setting, making it "difficult to breathe" because the apartment was so hot.

The child had "obvious trauma" to the front of his head, had small scabs in his midsection and appeared to have blood around his mouth and nose, police said. He also seemed to have a large burn on the left side of his face.

Police found a black electrical cord in the house that appeared to be consistent with some of the marks on the child's lower torso. He also had marks on his chest that seemed consistent with an "electric shock device (taser)" that was found in the kitchen, officials said.

The friend who called 911 later told cops that he had previously seen Lewis hitting the child with an electrical cord. While some of the marks on the child's body appeared fresh, others were in different stages of healing.

Lewis claimed her son only had a small mark under his eye and an injury to his nose before she found him unresponsive on the living room floor. She denied seeing the other injuries and also claimed her son would regularly run into the wall and hit his head.

The mother admitted to using methamphetamine days before her toddler was found dead.

She also told cops her son was in foster care since he was 10 months old and was placed in her care under CPS supervision about 6 months before his death.

The child's cause of death was blunt force trauma to his head, as per the results of a preliminary autopsy.

The younger sibling in the house received medical attention and was found to have methamphetamine in his system. He was placed in protective custody.