EVERETT — Detectives are exploring whether other children may have been mistreated — including being secretly recorded and shot with BB guns by their father — as the investigation continues into the December death of a Snohomish County infant.
A team of detectives from the Everett Police Department and the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office has served multiple search warrants in the case.
In addition to items associated with the death of 3-month-old Madilynn Schreib, investigators have seized video recording equipment, cellphones, computers and multiple BB guns and Airsoft replica weapons, court papers show.
Authorities learned of Madilynn’s grave condition when they were summoned to an Everett motel room Dec. 18. Inside were four other people. They included the girl’s mother, Jerrica Schreib, 19, and her boyfriend, Donald Coons, 42, plus two of Coons’ three daughters, ages 11, 13 and 14.
The adults claimed Madilynn was having an allergic reaction. Firefighters noted suspicious injuries to the infant, including a broken arm, cuts and bruises.
The baby was hospitalized and died two days later. Her death has been ruled a homicide, although that determination is more complex than in other cases. The county medical examiner determined Madilynn died from a combination of pneumonia, sepsis and meningitis with non-accidental trauma and a clinical history of the presence of amphetamine. She tested positive for methamphetamines at the hospital.
Coons and Schreib both have denied wrongdoing. They had been jailed for criminal mistreatment, but were released after prosecutors declined to refile the charges in Snohomish County Superior Court related to the baby’s death.
Police and prosecutors have made clear the investigation into Madilynn’s death continues.
Search warrants show detectives also are examining allegations of mistreatment reportedly raised by Coons’ daughters.
The girls have told investigators they have for years been physically abused by Coons, including being shot by Airsoft and BB guns, according to sworn affidavits Everett police detective Andrew Williams filed with the court.
One of the girls “described digging out a BB from the skin of her leg from one such incident,” he wrote.
The girls also reportedly told detectives that Coons had installed surveillance cameras and recording equipment at the south Everett home where they had lived, and that he told them he kept track of what they did and said.
Among other things, he reportedly monitored their interactions with social workers from Child Protective Services, who previously had investigated allegations of abuse, one of Coons’ daughters said.
“She said that Donald had wired audio and video surveillance throughout the house and would record their interactions with CPS,” the police affidavit said. “She had seen the monitor in his bedroom and he told them he had recorded them onto a DVR. She had to lie because they were constantly being monitored.”
Several small cameras and cables were found during the search of the motel room, detectives wrote. The cameras were described as still being attached to wood that apparently had been mounted at another location.
Child Protective Services has placed Coons’ daughters into protective custody.
Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snorthnews.
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