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Mother Charged with Fracturing Baby’s Skull

STROUD TOWNSHIP — A mother from Stroud Township is facing charges after she allegedly fractured her baby’s skull and caused several other injuries. Now af...
ashley buchanan

STROUD TOWNSHIP -- A mother from Stroud Township is facing charges after she allegedly fractured her baby’s skull and caused several other injuries.

Now after a year-long grand jury investigation, the mother, Ashley Buchanan is being charged with aggravated assault.

Authorities say the 13-month-old boy was badly hurt last year by his own mother, Ashley Buchanan, 24, of Stroud Township.

Detectives say the child somehow got a fracture to his skull, a broken arm, bumps, bruises, and a lump on his right eye while he was in her care. There were also bite marks on his right arm.

"It's very disturbing when a 13 month old presents with these kinds of injuries, the skull fracture, the fracture to the arm,” said Stroud Area Regional Police Detective Richard Wolbert.

Now Buchanan is charged with aggravated assault for those injuries.

Detective Richard Wolbert says that a grand jury was used as part of an almost year-long investigation trying to determine exactly who was responsible for hurting the child.

"Because of subpoena power, the people are put under oath, they're actually sworn in and tends to get them to tell the truth,” said Wolbert.

Court paperwork shows text messages Buchanan sent to the boy’s father explaining those injures didn’t match what doctors documented.

Buchanan lives in a home with her grandmother in Stroud Township. Her grandmother says Buchanan loves her son.

"She would not do anything to that boy. She is very, extremely tolerant of anything he does. She worships the ground that he walks on,” said the victim’s grandmother Mary Jane Gordon.

Investigators were told Buchanan and her boyfriend at the time took the baby to Dansbury Park in East Stroudsburg the day before the injuries were found. They allegedly picked up a case of beer on the way. That’s where family members say the baby’s injuries happened.

And the bite marks?

"They were somehow gotten after the exchange. They did not come from her, they did not come from this household. They did not come from Ashley,” said Gordon.

Buchanan is free on bail. She is scheduled to be in court later this month for a preliminary hearing. Buchanan has been allowed limited supervised visitation with her son.

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