The medical examiner’s office that ruled the decapitation of a baby as a homicide has said the office was not notified of the incident and found out by the funeral home.
Baby Treveon Isaiah Taylor Jr., died on July 9 or July 10 at Southern Regional Medical Center in Riverdale, Ga., according to a press release from the Clayton County Medical Examiner’s Office. However, it wasn’t until July 13 that the medical examiner’s officer heard about the decapitation.
According to the office, it received a call from the Willie Watkins Funeral Home.
“It’s our belief that the hospital should have contacted us and called us,” Brian Byars, director of the Clayton County Medical Examiner’s Office, told PEOPLE in a recent interview.
“The circumstances, because there were a lot of unanswered questions and cause for trauma, we think we should have been contacted. And that’s the reason we took jurisdiction over the case when we were notified,” Byars said, adding that his office told law enforcement what had happened.
The baby’s parents, Jessica Ross and Treveon Isaiah Taylor Sr., also claim they didn’t know the specifics of their son’s death until days later, and have since filed a fraud and negligence lawsuit against the hospital, PEOPLE reported.
“They were unaware, they were told that the baby didn’t make it,” Cory Lynch, an attorney representing the parents, recently told the outlet. “They were not told of the condition of the body.”
At a press conference Wednesday, Lynch and attorney Roderick Edmond claimed when the couple asked to see their baby, hospital staff tightly wrapped the baby and propped up his head, which the parents believe was an attempt to conceal what had happened to their baby.
“Lies and cover-ups,” Edmond alleged.
Byars, of the medical examiner’s office, also confirmed that the office was shown a picture of a tightly swaddled baby.
“It looked like they presented a very healthy, very good-looking, beautiful child,” he told PEOPLE.
The parents’ complaint also alleges that hospital officials encouraged them to cremate the baby’s remains and that an autopsy “was not needed,” which the couple believes was also an attempt to destroy evidence.
“We just want justice for our son,” Treveon Sr. said at Wednesday’s press conference. “They lied to us.”
