PINEVILLE, Mo. The McDonald County prosecutor has dismissed a murder charge that he filed against Jessica Newhard 15 years after the 2001 death of her 21-month-old foster daughter, Megan McCullar.
Prosecutor Bill Dobbs said Wednesday that he no longer believes he has a viable case he can bring against Newhard at trial.
"For one thing, the pathologist died," Dobbs said of the medical examiner who performed an autopsy on the child and ruled that she died of "shaken impact syndrome."
The girl's death was ruled a homicide at the time and Newhard was arrested and charged with felony child abuse. But the charge was dropped by a former prosecutor because of problems with the case, which included the child's contact with as many as four adults on the day of her death.
The prosecutor at the time had the case sealed so that charges might be refiled at a later date if new evidence emerged.
That's what happened a couple of years ago when Kevin Newhard informed McDonald County sheriff's investigators that his ex-wife, Jessica, confessed to him 12 years after the girl's death that she had killed her.
The new information contributed to Dobbs' decision to file a charge of second-degree murder against Jessica Newhard in 2016.
