A Columbus mother is currently facing severe felony charges, including murder, following the death of her 6-year-old daughter, Eva Bretz. According to NBC4i, 32-year-old Ashley Fagan was indicted on murder, involuntary manslaughter, permitting child abuse, and endangering children. On top of these, she's charged with obstruction of justice. The indictment stems from the discovery of the critically injured child at The Bradford at Easton Luxury apartments on April 13.
Pleaded not guilty on all her charges, Fagan was denied bail by a Franklin County Court of Common Pleas judge, according to NBC4i's reports. While being dispatched to the apartment in Columbus, police and medics found Eva Bretz with life-threatening injuries described by the court records as including a severed liver and ligature marks around her neck, reported by WBNS. Suffering from severe trauma, she later died at Nationwide Children's Hospital.
The child's injuries were incurred while in the care of Fagan and her boyfriend, 24-year-old Blake Hutchinson, who authorities say also made false statements about the incident. While an arrest warrant had been issued for Hutchinson, he subsequently died by suicide after being confronted by law enforcement, as mentioned by NBC4i. Fagan, on the other hand, awaits her arraignment in jail, set for today.
The ongoing case has wider implications, highlighting systemic issues within child protection services. Franklin County Children Services, which had interactions with the family on reports of neglect and drug use since Bretz's birth in 2019, noted that despite their efforts to provide supportive services, "the kind of isolation that can hide abuse and neglect" was not mitigated, NBC4i reported. And according to WTOL, this case is not solitary as another similar incident involved a boyfriend charged with the child's mother in a separate deadly abuse case.
