Utah caretaker arrested in death of 3-year-old boy

VERNAL, Utah (KSL.com) — A Vernal caretaker has been arrested and accused of causing fatal blunt force head injuries to a 3-year-old boy in September.

Angela Accuttoroop, 50, was booked into the Uintah County Jail on Monday for investigation of child abuse homicide.

On Sept. 4, police responded to a report of an unresponsive 3-year-old boy.

“The caller, Angela Accuttoroop, was caring for the child and was the only person home with the child at the time of the incident,” a police booking affidavit states.

“The child was transported to the emergency room and later flown to a Wasatch Front hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. Following his death, the child was transported to the Utah State Medical Examiner’s Office to determine the cause and manner of death. Recently obtained results determined the manner of death to be homicide, and the cause to be blunt force injuries,” Vernal police added in a statement Tuesday.

At the time of the boy’s death, he was living with Accuttoroop, a “caretaker,” according to police.

She told investigators that she “had turned the shower on for the child and placed the child on a shower seat inside the running shower. Angela stated she turned around, and at some point during that, the child had fallen or slipped from the shower seat and hit his head. Angela’s statement indicated the child landed on their back on the floor of the shower and had hit the back of their head,” according to the affidavit.

But emergency first responders noted that the boy “had put a pull-up diaper on” and “the child seemed dry to the touch with slightly damp hair” despite being told he had been in the shower, the affidavit states.

Doctors told police that the boy also “showed signs of recent head trauma, as well as indications of older injuries/physical trauma. I was informed computed tomography imaging showed the child had subdural bleeding,” police wrote in the affidavit.

The boy was flown to Primary Children’s Hospital due to the extent of his injuries, but died on Sept. 7, according to the affidavit.

An autopsy revealed several injuries to the boy’s head, the affidavit alleges, and concluded that “falling approximately 15 inches to the floor of a shower is not plausible given the distribution and severity of injuries.

“The injuries to the child cannot be explained by any sort of benign occurrence and would have been inflicted upon the child. At this time, it is believed that the injuries were caused recklessly or negligently,” the arrest report states.

When questioned, Accuttoroop “could not provide any sort explanation for the injuries from medical examiner findings. Angela acknowledged becoming frustrated with the child’s behaviors and admitted she was not equipped to take on the care of the child. It should be noted Angela is not a parent of the child but had assumed care taking responsibilities about six weeks prior to the child’s death,” the affidavit says.

The name of the child has not been released.

Police also noted that Accuttoroop has “expressed fear of retaliation from the child’s family and stated she has received threats from people due this investigation. It is this investigator’s fear that there may be some form of retaliation or retribution against Angela if she is released at this time.”