Codi Michele Aston
December 4 2002 - February 3 2005
Age: 2 years old
Codi was described to be a loving little girl who always gave hugs and kisses, she could steal someone's heart by batting her big blue eyes. Codi was born to her parents Angela and Brian, with an older brother.
When Brian and Angela split up, Brian met a woman named Melissa Minehart.
On January 29th 2005 Brian, picked Codi up from Angela's house, visitations weren't scheduled and Brian picked up Codi whenever he wanted unless her mother already had plans. But Brian usually picked her up on Friday and took her back to Angela on Sunday. But this visit kept until Wednesday, February 2nd, because Codi's grandmother had a doctor appointment at St. Louis. But it snowed that day so her grandmother cancelled her appointment because of the way some people drive in the snowy conditions, they went to the grocery store and then home, when they got home, Angela received a call from her stepfather, he said that Brian had called him and told him Codi was in the hospital.
Codi's grandmother called the school to let them know that Angela would pick up her son, whilst Angela called Brian who had just been at the school, he said that he received a phone call saying that Codi had taken a nap and woke up crying, she walked a little way across the floor, went limp, and fell hitting her head on the ground and then had a seizure, Brian's girlfriend, Melissa, called the ambulance. Angela thought that Codi was at Jefferson Memorial in Crystal City but she had been notified by her step-father that she had been transferred to Children's in St. Louis, she was also told that Codi was unresponsive. Angela arrived at the hospital before the ambulance carrying Codi arrived.
When Codi arrived at the hospital, Angela was taken to a small waiting room and asked a lot of questions. The social worker and the nurse asked Angela when the last time she saw Codi was, and what kind of, if any, bruises she had when she left her home. Angela said she had never seen Brian or his girlfriend hit Codi. The social worker told Angela that it was obvious she was abused.
Angela was heart broken, she trusted Melissa but she abused Codi. She was also told that Codi was bruised from head to toe, she was unresponsive and not breathing by herself. Angela was asked how she disciplined Codi, she said she tapped her on the hands to get her attention but that was all. Angela wouldn't see Codi for 5 more days.
When Angela saw Melissa, she said she was the least of her concerns, but she looked guilty, not like the guilt that this happened in her care, but the guilt like, I did this.
When Angela did see Codi, she looked so small and helpless, tubes were going in and out of her body, her face, arms and legs were bruised. Angela said she wanted to take Codi's pain away and take her place, she would have gladly given her life for Codi. Angela soon discovered that Melissa did in fact abuse Codi. Codi's head injuries were consistent with shaken baby syndrome.
Angela decided to have Codi's organs donated if she didn't survive and she signed a document to make sure that non of Codi's organs were to be used for scientific studies, unless one of her organs were found to be unusable, everything would be donated except Codi's eyes, Angela said she couldn't handle walking down the street and seeing her eyes in someone else. Codi was then taken off life support after her condition deteriorated.
Melissa was sentenced to 10 years in prison for abusing Codi, Pamela, Melissa's mother, will not be sentenced for her involvement in the case, she was said to have known Codi was being abused but didn't stop it.
Rest in Peace Codi
