The report I read said they questioned them and let them go...
Mike Newall, Inquirer Staff Writer
Last updated: Wednesday, July 17, 2013, 1:08 AM
Posted: Tuesday, July 16, 2013, 4:15 PM
Police are investigating the death of a 4-year-old Southwest Philadelphia girl Tuesday morning at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
The girl, identified as Seanita Brown, was pronounced dead about 2:50 after being brought to the hospital by her mother, bleeding from both ears and with old and new bruising across her body, according to police sources.
The mother and her boyfriend were questioned and released by Special Victims Unit officers Tuesday, pending the results of a medical examiner's report, police sources said.
A police source said Tuesday night the report found the girl had died of laceration of the liver from blunt-force trauma, and the death was ruled a homicide.
The Homicide Unit has taken over the case and is searching for the pair, police sources said. The mother and boyfriend were uncooperative with investigators in their initial interviews, a police source said.
The mother said that when she gave the girl a bath late Monday, the girl looked "out of it," the source said. The mother took her to the hospital, where the girl died shortly afterward. Doctors noticed the bruises on the girl's body and notified authorities. The mother and boyfriend could not explain the bruises, the source said.
Just before 5 p.m. Tuesday, police officers canvassed the 2200 block of South 56th Street, where neighbors said the girl lived with her mother, two siblings, and the boyfriend.
Alicia Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services, said confidentiality restrictions kept her from commenting on whether the agency was involved with the family or if it had been in the past.
As with every child fatality, DHS is conducting an internal investigation and assisting police, Taylor said.
Authorities brought the girl's 11-month-old brother to the hospital to be examined, but sources said that child was not injured. The age of an older brother has not been released.
Neighbors said the couple moved into the single-story redbrick rowhouse about three months ago. On Tuesday, the storm door was broken and a Dora the Explorer kitchen set sat in the overgrown front yard. An air conditioner was running in the front window, but no one answered the door.
"They looked like they were a happy family," said one neighbor, Mateen Abdul.
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