By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com
The Jasper County prosecutor said Tuesday that he will await preliminary findings of an autopsy before deciding whether a Carthage father is to be charged in the death of his 8-month-old son.
Eddie A. Salazar, 29, is accused of making a false report to police that the baby boy was abducted by two masked men who broke into their home Thursday night. Investigators found the body of the baby, also named Eddie Salazar, on Saturday in Spring River east of Carthage after the father reportedly admitted that he had fabricated the kidnapping story.
The father remained in jail Tuesday on $100,000 bond. He has been named by investigators as the “only” suspect in his son’s death.
Salazar is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday morning in Jasper County Circuit Court in Joplin on the misdemeanor charge of making a false report. Court officials said Tuesday that the arraignment may be accomplished through a videoconference with the jail in Carthage.
Prosecutor Dean Dankelson said he does not anticipate filing any more charges against the father before the Boone County medical examiner, who performed an autopsy Monday, releases preliminary findings.
The medical examiner has yet to specify a cause of death in the case. He has informed investigators that he wants to conduct additional tests, which could take up to two weeks.
Dankelson said he will not be prepared to file charges until he knows what the medical evidence is concerning the manner and cause of death.
“We’re waiting on more details from the autopsy,” Dankelson said.
Investigators have yet to say what the father told them after reportedly admitting sometime Friday night that the abduction story was false. They also have not said whether anything he told them helped authorities find the child’s body in the river.
Funeral arrangements for baby Eddie Salazar are being handled by Ulmer Funeral Home in Carthage. Those arrangements had yet to be announced late in the day Tuesday.
The apparent manner of the baby’s death has shaken many in the community of Carthage and the Joplin area. Some measure of an outpouring of sympathy for the child can be gauged from the large number of people leaving comments on a memorial page for baby Eddie that was set up by someone on the popular Web site Facebook.
“I didn’t know him, but, for some reason, I can’t stop thinking about him,” a woman wrote on the page. “My insides are torn up and have been since I heard about him being found in a river.”
