Indiana prosecutors filed a murder charge Thursday in connection with an Illinois baby found dead 18 months earlier in a Hammond retention pond off Interstate 80/94.
The cause of death was “undetermined,” but a forensic pathologist couldn’t rule out “homicide”, according to court records.
Ahmeel Fowler, now 27, was charged in Cook County, Illinois on Nov. 23, 2021 with strangling his girlfriend to death, Ja’nya Murphy, 21, of Wheeling, Illinois. She was found dead in her apartment on Nov. 9, 2021.
Days later, a child was found dead on Nov. 11 in a retention pond in Hammond off I-80/94′s Kennedy Avenue exit.
The child is not named in Indiana criminal charges. Wheeling Deputy Police Chief Al Steffen previously confirmed the child was Jaclyn “Angel” Dobbs, Murphy’s 1-year-old daughter.
Fowler, who is from Pingree Grove, Illinois, has been held without bail in Cook County, Illinois since November 2021, records show. He was formally charged Thursday in Lake Superior Court in Crown Point in the child’s death.
A spokeswoman for the Lake County (Indiana) Prosecutor’s Office was not able to clarify why charges were filed over a year later by press time.
Court records do not elaborate on where the child died or how long she could have been there.
The child died of “cardiopulmonary arrest” that was “possible due to hypothermia”, according to an autopsy by Lake County Forensic Pathologist Dr. Zhuo Wang.
The temperature ranged from 43-52 degrees, he wrote. “Prolonged exposure” for a child “could cause hypothermia” and “eventually sudden death,” according to the affidavit.
There was no evidence of drowning or a “significant” internal injury. Her manner of death was “undetermined.”
He only had “limited” information from the scene, but couldn’t rule out a possible homicide.
The child was found in a camouflage shirt, which had an attached lanyard and pacifier. She wore pink pants with one pink sock, according to court documents.
Officials previously said Fowler and Murphy’s relationship was “troubled.” He was not the child’s father.
He was arrested in 2021 in Missouri. The child’s body was spotted by construction workers.
Chicago Tribune reporter Madeline Buckley contributed.
