A 2-year-old boy was taken to the ICU at University Hospital Thursday after suffering from third-degree burns, cuts, a rash and bruising.
A woman alerted law enforcement Thursday there was child who had burns on his hands, face and fingers. The caller told 911 dispatch the boy's mother, Skylar Duhn, and her boyfriend, Troy Wyche, did not want to call for help since Wyche had an active case with Division of Family Services.
When deputies responded to the residence, they immediately called for an ambulance after seeing the boy's injuries. There was also a 6-month-old girl in a walker inside the residence. Duhn told deputies she believed the burns had occured Tuesday night when she was at work, indicating they were caused after the child fell into a space heater. Duhn said Wyche left the residence before the deputies arrived because he was "scared to go back to prison."
Deputies learned that Thursday afternoon, Wyche's vehicle was seen at a Walmart parking lot. Surveillance video showed him walking out of the store with clothing draped over his arm. The store said he had not paid for the clothes.
The video showed a white SUV picking up Wyche and driving off. That vehicle was seen in Stover, Missouri, and two Morgan County deputies conducted a traffic stop; the vehicle's driver was Rebecca Coerver, Wyche's mother. Deputies saw coat hangers in the back of the SUV, matching those used at Walmart.
Coerver told Morgan County deputies Wyche had asked her to pick him up from the Walmart, as he needed to see his attorney in Osage Beach. She also told them she had advised Duhn over the previous four days to take the toddler to a doctor. Coerver told deputies she did not call 911 because she thought Duhn would take the boy to a hospital. A search warrant of Coerver's phone revealed photos in her Messenger App of the boy's injuries, the probable cause document stated.
In an interview, Duhn said Wyche had texted her approximately Jan. 24 that the boy had made his way into the refrigerator and "got salsa all over him." When Duhn returned home from work, she said her son's eyes had swelled shut, and she believed he had an allergic reaction to the salsa, so she placed a wet washcloth on his eyes. "Skylar stated when she removed the washcloth, the skin on his eyes came off with the washcloth," the document stated.
Duhn said the next day Wyche told her the 2-year-old had pulled the TV and the TV stand over on himself. Duhn told investigators she began to see bruising on the boy's eyes and groin area. Duhn said on Jan. 29 she noticed her son had a large burn on his left hand. Wyche told her he had been asleep and knew nothing of the boy's injury, according to the document.
Duhn told deputies all the incidents occurred while Wyche was watching her children. She also told deputies she was aware of Wyche's "no contact order" from a March 2018 case in Miller County in which he was charged with "breaking [redacted's] skull."
She said she hid her relationship with Wyche while Department of Family Services investigated and conducted services in her home. Those ended in October or November 2018, and Duhn said she had Wyche watch her children while she worked nights at her job. She also stated she did not want to go to the hospital because she did not want to lose her children.
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