The mother of a 4-year-old Louisiana girl joined other community residents Wedneday night to pay tribute to the little girl who died earlier this month from injuries police say were inflicted by her father and his girlfriend.
“I wish could go back in time so that I could save her because she was my baby,” Lisa Miller told KPLC.
The state Department of Children and Family Services said that Athena Rose Denise Miller was brought to a hospital in Leesville on November 6 with “a bilateral brain bleed a broken humerus and a left clavicle break, KPLC reported.
“In addition, she had bruising over much of body and burns on her face, chin and neck,” the agency said. The girl died the next day.
An autopsy said she died from “cardiopulmonary arrest, intracranial bilateral hemorrhaging and non-accidental injures from child abuse.”
Investigators also determined that the little girl’s 2-year-old brother had injuries believed to come from physical abuse, and the children’s father, 24-year-old Logan Miller, and his girlfriend, 48-year-old Terrie Gray, were arrested and charged with first degree murder and cruelty to a juvenile.
Athena’s family described her as happy and playful.
“She was a very loving child,” her mother said. “She had the purest heart. She loved everybody.”