BOWLING GREEN, OH (Toledo News Now) – The deaths of two young children in Wood County are connected by a coincidence.
Police say three month old Carter J. Steinmiller died Saturday evening at Wood County Hospital after emergency crews were called to the home where he lived in Plain Township. The case is being investigated by the Wood County Sheriff's Office, but no cause of death has been released and no charges have been filed in the case.
Emma Zehnphenig, who died at the age of 2 in March, lived in the same neighborhood about a year before her death. Blunt force trauma was the cause of death in that case, but no arrests have been made.
Residents are raising concerns about both cases, but particularly the Steinmiller case. According to the Wood County Sheriff, Steinmiller's mother is the daughter of the Bowling Green Fire Chief.
The Sheriff maintains the mother's relationship to the fire chief will not affect the investigation.
"Whether it's the fire chief's daughter or anyone's daughter, we're going to do this investigation the same. We want to get to what the truth is and we will do that for any case that we have," said Mark Wasylyshyn, Wood County's sheriff.
Wasylyyshyn says these types of investigations take time, and points out he cannot even rule the death a homicide until a coroner's report has been completed.
