Family in Ohio mourns the loss of ‘Baby Grace’

Police think ‘Grace,’ whose body was found in Galveston Bay, is Riley Ann Sawyers.

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — Investigators said Monday they are “fairly confident” that a toddler whose body washed ashore in a plastic storage bin was a girl whose Ohio grandmother called authorities after seeing a sketch of the child dubbed “Baby Grace.”

The mother and stepfather of 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers were in custody. Investigators were awaiting DNA test results but believe their efforts, including releasing the sketch, helped identify the child found by a fisherman Oct. 29 in Galveston Bay.

“It was a few weeks ago I held up this little shoe and asked ‘Who is Baby Grace? Who does this belong to,’” sheriff’s Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo said at a news conference. “We’re now fairly confident we know the answer to that.”

An autopsy revealed three skull fractures, but the cause of death has not been determined. Tuttoilmondo declined to discuss specifics because the investigation is still under way.

“There is a whole lot more work to do,” he said.

Riley and her mother, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, moved this year from suburban Cleveland to Spring, about 75 miles north of Galveston.

Trenor, 19, and Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 24, were arrested early Saturday and charged with injury to a child and tampering with evidence, Tuttoilmondo said. Bail was set at $350,000 each, and both suspects were expected to appear in court today.

The two have attorneys, but Tuttoilmondo could not provide their names.

The girl’s grandmother, Sheryl Sawyers, said Monday that she hopes the charges against the couple are upgraded to reflect the child’s death. “She’s not just injured. She’s dead,” Sawyers said at a Mentor, Ohio, news conference.

Sawyers, occasionally wiping away tears and holding up the Elmo doll she had already bought Riley for Christmas, said she still wanted an answer to the question of a motive. “I want to know why,” she said.

The Sawyers family attorney, Laura DePledge, said the family looks toward prosecution of those responsible for the death of the girl, who would have turned 3 on March 11.

“We didn’t know Baby Grace was going to be Riley. ... We talked about whether this would be an end of a chapter or the beginning of a new chapter,” DePledge said. “None of us imagined anything this horrible. Never, ever.”

Asked about her family’s reaction to word from authorities that the girl was likely her granddaughter, Sheryl Sawyers sighed, wept and said, “Devastated.”

“It’s hard to think that I’ll never see her again,” she said. “Knowing is better than not knowing. That still doesn’t make it right.”

DePledge said Trenor and Sawyers’ son, Robert Sawyers, 20, also of Mentor, were high school sweethearts.

Robert Sawyers, who works in an auto parts store, appeared at the news conference along with his wife, Catherine, 20, who held their 3-month-old son, Braden. The couple married Aug. 13, three days before Braden was born.

“She had a very big imagination for such a little girl,” he said of his daughter. “She could play with anything and have fun with it. She was active, very hyper but very well-behaved. Our family never had a problem with her behavior at all.”

Robert Sawyers was never married to Trenor but lived with her and their daughter in his mother’s home for about two years. He was charged with domestic violence against her after a March 30 incident at the home, where his current wife also was living, according to a police report.

Trenor told police that Sawyers had pulled her out of bed by her arm, pushed her and pinned her against a wall by her neck because he was angry that she had parked in his assigned parking spot. Sawyers told police he pulled and pushed Trenor but did not pin her against the wall, the report said.

DePledge said Robert Sawyers went to court and there was insufficient evidence to support the charge, which was reduced to disorderly conduct.

She said Robert and Kimberly last saw each other at a court custody hearing around May 25 to set conditions for him to see his daughter.

“The wondering and worrying about where she is and if she’s being cared for is over,” DePledge said. “But, there is certainly a bit of relief among family members to know she is resting peacefully and she is no longer subject to any abuse.”

Riley was seen alive three to four months ago, but Trenor never told police she was missing, Tuttoilmondo said.

Sheryl Sawyers said she has not seen Riley since she and Trenor moved to Texas to be with Zeigler, whom Trenor met online, the Galveston County Daily News reported Sunday.

Tuttoilmondo said Trenor told relatives that someone claiming to be a social worker from Ohio took the girl in July.

Sheryl Sawyers said the mother’s claim that a social worker from Ohio had taken the baby in Texas didn’t make any sense.

She had called Texas authorities after learning of Baby Grace to see if a missing person report had been filed in Riley’s case. When she saw a sketch of Baby Grace, she thought it might be her granddaughter, authorities said.

Tuttoilmondo said investigators searched the couple’s Spring home, but he declined to say what was found or what they may have said about Riley’s disappearance when they were questioned Friday.

Tuttoilmondo said investigators became emotionally involved in determining the little girl’s identity.

“Any way you look at it, we carry a piece of her with us and will always carry a little piece of her with us,” he said. “She’s still our little girl.”