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On June 15th, 1998, a divorced father, Barton Monroe McNeil, also known as Bart, had custody of his daughter Christina for the night, per child care arrangements with this ex-wife, Tita McNeil. Tita worked the third shift at the local hospital. Proud to be such a large part of raising three-year old Christina McNeil, Bart routinely had custody of his daughter, sometimes four or five days a week.

Around 10:30 on this particular night, Bart put Christina to bed after her supper. Inexplicably, a few hours later, Bart found Christina awake in the bedroom smiling and talking. Not overly concerned with this behavior, Bart told Christina she needed to get some sleep and tucked her back into bed.

Bart awoke at 7:30 the next morning and followed his regular routine. After calling to Christina to get up and get dressed and receiving no response, Bart went into her room to check on her. Bart found his daughter lifeless in her bed. He immediately called 911 and attempted to perform CPR, but to no avail. Paramedics arrived and confirmed the worst: three-year old Christina was dead. It was later indicated by the coroner that she had been smothered to death.

Initially, Bart had no idea what could have caused his daughter’s death. But as he observed the state of Christina’s room, Bart began to notice something wasn’t right. The window fan that had been in the first floor bedroom’s window had fallen to the floor. There were two holes cut in the window screen right above the latches, which were unlatched. Bart started to believe that someone had intentionally removed the screen to gain access to his daughter’s room.



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