43
Liberty family hit with sudden deaths of woman and granddaughter in three days time
By Ed Runyan
LIBERTY
Last week was filled with tragedy for Mary Collins, 81, and her family — starting with the Jan. 25 death of Ansley Watson, her 5-week-old great-granddaughter, followed three days later by the death of her 45-year-old daughter, Amy Huffman.
In both cases, police are investigating, and it may be a while before anyone knows the reasons why they died.
At 10:30 a.m., Jan. 25, the Liberty police and fire departments were dispatched to Mary Collins’ home on Tibbetts-Wick Road in Liberty because Ansley Watson, born Dec. 14, 2014, was found face-down and not breathing in bed with her parents.
Ansley’s mother, Emily Huffman, 19, gave the baby chest compressions and brought her from the upstairs bedroom to the first floor as Liberty Township medics arrived and took over the child’s care.
Ansley was pronounced dead at ValleyCare Northside Medical Center. The cause and manner of death are pending results of further tests, according to the Trumbull County Coroner’s office.
Huffman told police she and the child’s father, Nicholas Watson, 23, had gone to sleep about 1 a.m. in an upstairs bedroom with Ansley between them on the bed. Ansley had not suffered from any illnesses since her birth, and no one in the house had been ill, police said.
Liberty Police Chief Richard Tisone said an investigation of the child’s death is ongoing by the Liberty Police Department and the Trumbull County Child Homicide Investigative Unit, a group of investigators from various police departments with specialized training.
A ruling on what caused the child’s death will come from the coroner’s office, Tisone said.
According to the Ohio Department of Health, the safest place for a baby to sleep is alone, on her back, in a crib in the room where its parent or parents sleep, but not in the parents’ bed.
Among those at the house was Amy M. Huffman, grandmother of Ansley and mother of Emily Huffman.
At 10:39 p.m. Wednesday, Amy Huffman was walking south on Belmont Avenue in Liberty on her way back to her mother’s Tibbetts-Wick Road home from a mobile-home park on Belmont when she was struck by a pickup truck driven by a 27-year-old Girard man that was also southbound on Belmont .
Huffman was transported to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
The highway patrol still is investigating that crash.
Mary Collins said her daughter was “very upset” over the death of her granddaughter, but she doesn’t think the two are related.
She said she imagines that her daughter was walking in the four-lane roadway because there was snow piled up along the edge of the roadway, and the driver may not have seen her. She may even have tripped, she said.
Sgt. Pat Abel of the Ohio State Highway Patrol said Huffman was walking in the roadway, but he is not familiar enough with the investigation to describe the part of the roadway where she was hit, the lighting available there or the effect snow accumulations may have had on walking conditions.