Mother, boyfriend gave ‘inconsistent’ statements on toddler’s death: police
It’s been almost a year since threeyear-old Ivy Wick died in a Calgary hospital, and police are releasing details of the incident in hopes of solving the girl’s suspicious death.
On Sept. 27, Ivy was taken to hospital from her Rundlehorn Drive N.E. home with injuries from what her mother and boyfriend described as a fall.
She died a little over a week later, spurring a homicide investigation that is still underway.
And while detectives are still waiting on medical evidence, police say an autopsy found the girl died as a result of blunt-force trauma.
Police say doctors who assessed Ivy ’s injuries “do not believe her injuries to be consistent with a fall.”
“Additional non-fatal injuries were located on Ivy’s body and are believed to be consistent with physical abuse,” police said in a statement.
Ivy was living with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend — who is not the girl’s father — at the time of her injuries, police say.
Investigators believe the couple were the only people with direct access to the girl on the day she was taken to hospital, adding the pair’s statements to police “are inconsistent with the evidence.”
Initially investigated by the child-abuse unit, the case was subsequently handed over to the homicide unit.
Less than a month after the girl’s death, Calgary Police Service Insp. Paul Wozney said doctors were skeptical about the nature of the girl’s injuries.
“You can see very quickly the dif- ference between injuries that are from a fall or if a child gets injured in the normal comings and goings that children get involved in,” he told Postmedia in 2017.
“There’s no question that these injuries were significant and led to her death.”
Now, police are asking the public for information on the case, saying friends or family may have noticed signs of abuse prior to the girl’s death.
Anyone with information about Ivy’s death is asked to contact the Calgary Police Service nonemergency line at 403-266-1234, or the Homicide Unit Tip Line at 403-428-8877.
Tipsters can also contact Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800222-8477.