March 30, 2015
A Cumberland County man was charged Monday with the murder, in the death of a 9-week-old girl, and endangering the welfare of a child, NJ.com reports.
Manuel Mikes, a 33-year-old Millville resident, was the infant's step-father, according to Lt. Jody Farabella of the Millville Police Department.
Police and paramedics arrived at the 200 block of South 5th Street on Friday at 6:30 a.m. to find the baby girl unresponsive. She was pronounced dead at 6:45 a.m.
While authorities initially believed that the baby may have suffocated at night, an investigation by the New Jersey Medical Examiner's Office ruled the death a homicide. Medical examiners discovered blunt-force trauma to the back of the baby's head.
Mikes is being held in the Cumberland County Jail in lieu of $1-million bail and has an arraignment scheduled at the Cumberland County Courthouse on Tuesday.
The incident remains under investigation.
