The burial of 4-year-old Breonna Loftin was Tuesday. This as the Hardin County District Attorney's Office continues to prepare its case against Breonna 's mother, 30-year-old Amanda Guidry, and Guidry's boyfriend, 34-year-old Jason Delacerda.
The two are charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury.
Investigators in the case spoke with 12 News HD about how they handle these tragic circumstances. Sgt. Mark Minton was first on the scene at the hospital where Breonna was pronounced dead. He says they can't let the horrible deaths they witness on the job drag them down, but they can't deny the emotions these cases bring to the surface.
"I've never seen a child with that many injuries before."
Sgt. Minton says he is always prepared for the worst on the job, but in the past year he has seen a man's charred body in a burned out trunk, and he has seen the horrific abuse of Breonna Loftin.
"It's gotten harder if it's gotten anything. We see more than what we used to see in every level of crime we deal with," says Sgt. Minton.
Marion Tanner is an advocate at the Garth House, a center for family violence victims. She says crimes involving children can be the most difficult for investigators.
"To think a child had to suffer and live through that for weeks or months at a time, it's really upsetting to vision a little child in that and so very helpless," says Tanner.
Sheriff Ed Cain says that's the most troubling element of the story for him: police were not able to help until after it was too late.
"Maybe if nothing else, it helps the public wake up and pay attention to their neighbors and their surroundings, and if they see something like this they report it," says Sheriff Cain.
He says tragic situations are the nature of the job, but counselors are available to investigators who might need to deal with these kinds of issues.
Hardin County District Attorney David Sheffield says in the case of 4-year-old Breonna Loftin, its a strong possibility that his office will bring capital murder charges. Sheffield says he hopes to present the case to a grand jury next month.
