Questions remain unanswered about the death of a malnourished child in a Midwestern city
At the Vista Green Apartments in the 7000 block of E Reno Avenue in Midwest City, a handwritten blessing on white paper is taped to the red door of apartment 118. It reads:
“Rest in peace baby, August 2024.”
Wilted flowers lie on the concrete threshold in front of the door.
More: Midwest City parents charged in death of 7-year-old daughter
Two weeks after a malnourished seven-year-old girl named Violet Mitchell was taken to a local hospital by her parents, wrapped in a blanket and soon pronounced dead, little is known about her and the family who lived in Unit 118 of the Vista Green Apartments.
Her parents, 37-year-old Anthony Yonko and 30-year-old Lisa Mitchell, who sometimes goes by the name “Ruby,” are both still in Oklahoma County Jail on $5 million bail and are charged with criminal homicide of a child in connection with child neglect.
The Oklahoma Department of Human Services, which oversees Child Support Services, declined to comment directly on the case until a full investigation into the girl’s death is completed and a final report from the state medical examiner is released.
“The loss of a child is a profound tragedy, and when such a loss is the result of abuse or neglect, it is even more heartbreaking,” DHS said in a statement. “Our deepest sympathies go out to all those affected by this devastating situation.”
Mid-Del Public Schools told The Oklahoman there was no record of the little girl attending their school.
Vista Green’s property management told The Oklahoman that it had been instructed by the company’s ownership not to discuss the matter.
During a visit to Vista Green on Wednesday, a woman who wishes to remain anonymous in this article said she had seen the family often but had little contact with them.
“I always saw her begging at (Raising) Cane’s,” the woman said. “I thought she was 5 because she was so little.”
According to a police report, Violet weighed only 25 pounds and was 3 feet 1 inch tall.
“She appeared very small and malnourished for a seven-year-old child,” a Midwest City Police detective wrote in a probable cause affidavit.
Parents could not explain the girl’s emaciated condition, according to an affidavit
On August 2, Midwest City Police were notified that Violet had been taken to Saint Anthony’s Midwest Hospital by private vehicle at approximately 11:28 a.m. and was apparently dead.
According to a police affidavit, hospital officials told police that the girl’s parents brought her to the hospital and the mother held the child wrapped in a blanket.
She was blue, stiff, covered in dust and soot, and appeared to have internal and external injuries.
Doctors and staff attempted life-saving measures. Violet was unresponsive. She was pronounced dead at 12:19 p.m.
A search warrant affidavit states that a DHS employee interviewed Mitchell, the girl’s mother.
“Ms. Mitchell told her that (Violet) was born in Michigan and last saw a doctor at four months of age, but had not been to the doctor since,” a detective wrote in the affidavit.
The parents could not explain the girl’s emaciated condition, the affidavit states.
Yonko, the father, told police he and Mitchell had been living at the Vista Green Apartments in the 7000 block of E Reno Avenue in Midwest City for several days with Mitchell’s sister, who apparently rented the apartment.
Yonko later told investigators that they had lived there for “several months,” the detective wrote.
An official said in an affidavit that Yonko changed his story several times, including about who lived in the apartment, which was still unoccupied on Wednesday.
Yonko, the officer said, initially stated that only he, Mitchell and Violet lived in the apartment, but “later stated that Mitchell’s sister, her boyfriend and two or three other children were in the apartment when he woke up,” after which Mitchell said Violet did not move.
The Vista Green woman who spoke to The Oklahoman said she saw authorities removing children from the apartment.
Father said girl was playing, police reported
Both Yonko and Mitchell told investigators they thought Violet had the flu.
Yonko told police they gave her crackers and soup. He told investigators he had been working the entire time and couldn’t explain how the girl had lost so much weight, the probable cause affidavit states.
Yonko told police that on the morning of the girl’s death, he was woken up by Mitchell, who told him that the girl was not moving, was sick and needed to go to the hospital.
“Anthony said Lisa was playing with (Violet) this morning but then said she wasn’t moving,” wrote an officer. He told police he didn’t think to call 911 because he thought the girl was just sick.
According to the affidavit, Yonko’s brother drove her to the hospital.
He told police that he could not say whether the girl was still alive because she was wrapped in the blanket.
Yonko’s brother reportedly said he “dropped her off at the emergency area and drove away from the area because he was scared and had to go to work.”
According to the search warrant affidavit, police officers at Unit 118 in Vista Green seized, among other items, cell phones, several baby bottles and a red New Testament with a handwritten prayer.
On Wednesday, a small card with a Bible verse was left hanging in a window. It read:
“All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God.”
