Autopsy shows baby had severe injuries

By Richard Bodee

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    SOUTH BEND, Indiana (WBND) — After a 6-month-old baby dies in St. Joseph County back in late-January, ABC57 Investigates looks into the case.

Now, we’re learning more details from the baby’s autopsy report and from court documents.

We want to warn you, some of what you read may be disturbing.

Asaiah Molik died at Memorial Hospital on January 27, 2021.

The autopsy report, which we obtained from family, says the baby had 23-healing rib fractures, bleeding in the brain, and compressions in his spine. The report says those injuries “likely occurred weeks before.”

There were also cuts and bruises all over Asaiah’s body, including his back, forearm, scalp, and nose.

Asaiah’s grandmother, Tonya Rosenberger, who declined an on-camera interview, but spoke to me over the phone, tells me, at the time of his death, Asaiah was in the care of his father, Averius Molik, and his other grandmother, Michele Molik. According to Rosenberger, the baby’s mother, Aisha Edwards, had given Asaiah to his father just before Christmas.

Rosenberger says the next thing she and her daughter knew, Asaiah was dead.

According to the autopsy report, Asaiah was allegedly asleep in a bed with his sibling and Michele Molik. The baby’s sleeping environment was listed as a concern by doctors multiple times in the autopsy report.

Allegedly, Michele feel asleep and woke up to find Asaiah lying on the floor in a pile of clothes.

The autopsy report lists the cause and manner of Asaiah’s death to be “undetermined,” despite listing the cuts and bruises as “irregular.” Rosenberger calls Asaiah’s death suspicious.

Last September and October, the Department of Child Services paid several visits to Asaiah’s house, but didn’t find any cuts or bruises on him.

So, we did some digging into the family.

We uncovered court documents from 1998, back when Michele Molik was charged with neglect of a dependent and resisting arrest.

According to those documents, police were called to Middlebury Street at 12:30 a.m. on January 11, 1997 for a two-year-old walking down the middle of the road. The temperature that night was recorded as 15 degrees.

A police investigation found the child was left unsupervised for an extended period of time and exposed to drug paraphernalia used to smoke crack cocaine. When police attempted to arrest Michele Molik, she resisted and was charged with that as well.

She eventually pleaded guilty to both charges and was sentenced to three years in prison, but only served one.

We reached to St. Joseph County Metro Homicide, the agency in charge of investigating Asaiah’s death, about the case. We’re told this is an ongoing investigation.

ABC57 Investigates is also in the process of obtaining additional documents about other members of the family as well as documents related to those DCS visits from last year.

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