Arrest Made in Death of 18-Month-Old

(Clark, MO) – The Randolph County Sheriff’s office was notified at 8:50 a.m. Sunday of a family transporting an unresponsive male child to Moberly Regional Medical Center. Officers arrived at the hospital to find that 18-month-old Jayden Bradds of rural Clark, Missouri, had been pronounced dead.

The Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control was called in to the investigation. As a result, a companion of the child’s mother, 23-year-old Joe Laswell of rural Clark, was arrested at 2:45 p.m. for domestic assault and child abuse, with additional charges pending.

An autopsy on the child is scheduled for today at the Boone County Medical Examiner’s Office in Columbia.