The parents of a 2-year-old Arkansas boy were arrested this week for his death last summer.
According to police reports, a tragic incident occurred as a toddler drowned while being taught to swim by Dakota Shawn Hays, aged 29, through a method involving throwing the child into the pool and submerging him to retrieve items from the bottom. Both Hays, who is the stepfather of the toddler, and the boy’s mother, Annastacia Grace Atkins, aged 24, have been charged with first-degree murder. Additionally, Hays faces charges of endangering the welfare of a minor, while Atkins is accused of permitting the abuse of a minor.
The incident took place on June 14, 2024. Hays, Atkins, and their three children were swimming, and Hays was trying to teach the toddler how to swim.
An investigation revealed that a 6-year-old girl informed authorities that Hays had tossed the toddler into the pool and held him underwater. Hays justified this action by claiming it was part of his swimming instruction, stating that the child was submerged for brief periods of time.
During one of the swimming sessions, Hays and the toddler were left alone in the pool. Hays abruptly left to find Atkins, informing her that something was gravely wrong with the child, who was observed shaking, gasping, and coughing up water – indicating that he had been submerged for a significantly longer duration than just a few seconds.
Someone called 911 while Atkins attempted chest compressions, but the boy stopped breathing and died.
The Arkansas Crime Lab conducted an autopsy and said his cause of death was hypoxic-ischemic Encephalopathy from a prolonged lack of oxygen to the brain.
Later, a pediatric professor at the University of Arkansas examined a scan of the child’s lungs and said it was consistent with drowning.
The crime lab also said the boy had multiple injuries on his head and body, including abrasions, cuts, and scars. Hays insisted that he would never hurt a child and said some of the bruises came when the TODDLER fell of a countertop the night before.
Atkins told police she’d never seen Hays hit the boy, but that told her once he thought he might have “whooped” the child too hard and left marks on his leg.
A 4-year-old boy, however, told investigators that Hays would regularly hit both him and the younger boy, and that both Hays and Atkins hit him with a wooden stick.
Hays is jailed on a $1 million bond, and Atkins has a $750,000 bond.
