A 27-year-old mother from the Navajo Nation community of Aneth, Utah, has been indicted on federal charges after her twin 3-month-old babies were found with broken bones and, in one case, a brain hemorrhage severe enough to require an emergency airlift to Salt Lake City. Fayette Whitehorse faces two counts of aggravated child abuse while within Indian Country, following a case that began when the infants were rushed from a rural hospital in Blanding to Primary Children's Hospital more than 300 miles away.
A federal grand jury in Salt Lake City formally returned the indictment against Whitehorse on Thursday, according to the ABC4 Utah report on the case, following an investigation led by the FBI Salt Lake City Field Office's Monticello Resident Agency, per the Department of Justice. The indictment formalizes charges that were first brought by criminal complaint on August 26. A jury trial is scheduled to begin November 10 at the Orrin G. Hatch United States Courthouse in downtown Salt Lake City, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tanner Zumwalt and Sam Pead prosecuting the case.
The twins, one male and one female, were born May 18 and spent more than a month in the neonatal intensive care unit before finally going home with their mother on July 1, according to the outlet's reporting. Whitehorse was the twins' primary caretaker, and the babies' father has said the couple never allowed anyone else in the home to care for them. Whitehorse herself reportedly said she had been with the infants around the clock since they left the hospital.
Injuries Discovered After a Rural Hospital Transfer
The trouble surfaced on August 24, when the twins were first brought to Blue Mountain Hospital in Blanding — the nearest emergency medical hub, roughly 40 miles north of Aneth in a county that stretches nearly 8,000 square miles with sparse medical infrastructure on the reservation, according to background compiled from High Country News. The severity of the infants' injuries prompted an airlift more than 300 miles north to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, the Justice Department said.
At Primary Children's, the female twin was found to have a fractured rib, a fractured knee, a limp arm that caused her pain when lifted, and a broken humerus. The male twin, who was born prematurely, had fractures on three ribs, a fractured radius bone, and — after the Center for Safe and Healthy Families recommended he be screened for additional injuries — doctors discovered a significant brain hemorrhage along with head measurements at the 100th percentile due to brain swelling, per the outlet's account. The Center for Safe and Healthy Families is a specialized child-maltreatment evaluation program affiliated with the University of Utah School of Medicine that serves as a regional referral facility across the Intermountain West, according to University of Utah Health.
What Investigators Say Whitehorse Told Them
FBI agents interviewed the twins' parents as part of the investigation. According to the federal complaint, the injuries likely occurred at the family's residence on the Navajo reservation in Aneth. Whitehorse allegedly admitted to causing injuries to the twins, telling investigators she had bent one twin's wrist too hard while he was in his car seat and that she had aggressively bounced one twin on her knee out of frustration, the outlet reported. The twins' father has said he and Whitehorse have three children together.
Why the Case Landed in Federal Court
Because the alleged abuse occurred within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation, the case falls under the Major Crimes Act, an 1885 federal statute that gives U.S. district courts primary jurisdiction over major felony offenses — including felony child abuse — committed by Native Americans on reservation land, according to Eisner Gorin LLP. Tribal courts are statutorily limited from imposing sentences exceeding one to three years per offense, which is why serious felony cases originating in Indian Country are handled by federal prosecutors rather than local tribal courts, per the Nebraska Law Review.
Aneth is a small, rural Navajo Nation chapter house community in San Juan County where roughly 84% of residents speak Navajo at home. Under Utah's aggravated child abuse statute, which federal courts reference for state-defined offenses prosecuted under the Major Crimes Act, a conviction for causing serious physical injury can carry up to 15 years in prison per count, according to KSL News.
The indictment represents formal allegations only, and Whitehorse, like anyone charged with a crime, is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Her federal trial is set to begin in November at the Hatch Courthouse in Salt Lake City.
