BOONE COUNTY, Ind. (TCD) — A 24-year-old father was arrested this week several months after his newborn daughter was found with apparent bite marks all over her body.
According to the probable cause affidavit cited by WXIN-TV, on Nov. 3, Gavan Rogers went to Witham Hospital in Lebanon with his newborn and the child’s mother for the infant’s checkup. Medical officials at the hospital reportedly became concerned after seeing bite-shaped bruises on her knee, wrists, and shoulder.
Rogers allegedly told hospital staff the bruises must have come from when he “play bit” his daughter or “open-mouth kissed” her too hard. He reportedly lives with his parents in Greencastle but had been living with the child and her mother since her birth.
The Lebanon Reporter says Witham officials transferred the girl to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis and alerted the Indiana Department of Child Services.
The child reportedly spent time in the neonatal ICU following her birth, and one nurse reportedly said she was “not comfortable sending this baby home to the care of the father.”
Nurses at Witham allegedly heard Rogers call the girl “evil,” and a “little b–ch.”
Whitestown Police Detective Joseph Turney reportedly wrote in the affidavit the newborn’s injuries “could only have been inflicted while using excessive force, which would have caused severe pain” to the girl.
Boone County Jail records show Rogers was booked March 14 on charges of neglect of a dependent and domestic battery.
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