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Group Offers Support Before and After Families Experience Tragedy of Child Abuse

A Chattanooga family already coping with the death of their two year old boy learns tonight police say his death was a homicide.

Police charged stepfather Justin Loines with aggravated child abuse and murder.

There's support for area families before and after such tragedies.

It started with a trip to the emergency room Wednesday.

Chattanooga Police got called to Memorial North Park Hospital when Justin Loines arrived with his two year old stepson already dead.

Sgt. Weary, "It's very disheartening for investigators to have to investigate the death of a child."

Emergency Room doctors told police the child had suffered some trauma.

Loines told investigators the child got hurt at a residence on Dayton Boulevard.

Sgt. Weary, "He stated that the child was playing on a plastic picnic table and that the child had fallen from the table and struck his head on the way down."

The Medical Examiner ruled it a homicide.

Now Loines faces murder and aggravated child abuse charges.

Sgt. Weary, "In situations like this investigators often times think of their own kids as would any parent."

Wanda Judds, "It is very heartbreaking, for the entire family."

Judds with the Partnership for Families, Children and Adults can't comment on a specific case.

She adds that the community also reacts to the heartbreaking news of abuse.

She says the Partnership teaches parents how to cope with stress to prevent such tragedies.

Judds, "There are lots of things about raising young children that are very stressful particularly some of the behaviors that parents don't understand."

And when the unthinkable happens, it offers support for those left with anger and guilt.

Judds, "Even though they might not have been involved at all, what if I had been there. What could I have done to prevent this. What should I have done?"

Police say they were told the child's mother was at work when he died.

Click here for the Partnership for Families, Children and Adults

or Call 423 755-2822.

You can reach the Child Advocacy Center in Chattanooga at (423) 267-5385

The Tennessee hotline for child neglect or abuse is 877-54 ABUSE or 877-542-2873.

In Georgia call 706-272-2331.